THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 



THE LIFE OF 
PRESTON B. PLUMB 

1837—1891 

UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM KANSAS FOR 
THE FOURTEEN YEARS FROM 1877 TO 1891 

"A PIONEER OF THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT IN AMERICA" 
"The history of his life is the history of Kansas" 

BY 
WILLIAM ELSEY CONNELLEY, A.M., Hon. 

WITH PORTRAIT AND MAPS 




CHICAGO 
BROWNE & HOWELL COMPANY 

1913 






COPYRIGHT, 1913 
BROWNE & HOWELL COMPANY 



PUBLISHED, NOVEMBER, 1913 



THB-TLIMPTON- PRESS 
NORWOOD- M ASS- U'S'A 



/j.sJ 



©CI.A858629 



PREFACE 

The object of this book is to present in a direct and 
simple way the leading events in the life of Preston B. 
Plumb. It has, however, a higher purpose than the 
mere exaltation of any name. A book which does not 
render service to society is worse than useless. Inter- 
woven there will be found something here of pioneer 
life, the founding of a great State, the passing of the 
old order, a change in the destiny of the Republic, the 
coming of a new era, and the influence of these on our 
industrial and political life. There will appear visions 
of the sword shaken over the land, and we shall see 
marches over the red roads of the Ozarks, on the prai- 
ries, through, the rolling woodlands of Missouri, across 
the Great Plains, and in the Rocky Mountains. There 
will arise to view the shock of battle, the dead and 
dying on bloody fields, the crime and glory of war — 
an iridescent phantasmagoria of the baseness and sub- 
limity of human passions and human actions. 

These are some of the reasons for this book. It is 
hoped that others will appear in its reading. 

Of Senator Plumb it must be said that he was a 
peculiar man. He was emotional and sympathetic — 
capable of friendship. 

Pioneer influences shaped Plumb's life and developed 
his intellect. He was an intense and independent 
American, and neither usage, precedent, nor party 
bound him. He was the apostle of the West, and Kan- 
sas was his inspiration. For in her rise she had ren- 
dered substantial service to the nation. Her course 
destroyed slavery. Her struggles produced liberal, 



vi PREFACE 

freedom-loving, and patriotic people. One of her Sena- 
tors, Plumb's fellow-soldier and friend, saved the 
Union when revolutionists had decreed its subserviency 
to the Republican party and impeached the President. 
Plumb, knowing that the Civil War had caused incon- 
ceivable misery and suffering could not approve the 
course of his party in reconstruction; but supported 
Greeley, and became the friend of the South. In the 
efforts of his party to withhold (if not destroy) in- 
dustrial liberty, he stood for the people, and became in 
a sense the forerunner of the present movement toward 
democracy in America. 

As to his adopted State there seemed to rest always 
on Plumb a sense of responsibility for the material 
progress of Kansas. This burden he could never es- 
cape. It was a personal matter, a feeling of individual 
moral obligation which he never could shake off. He 
seemed not to realize that his portion of the work of 
developing the natural resources of Kansas and provid- 
ing for the population which was to spread to her ut- 
most bounds, was, in fact, no greater than that of any 
other citizen except as he had greater opportunities 
for achievement. He made the interest of Kansas and 
her people, present and prospective, his concern from 
the time he left his printing office in Ohio until the day 
of his death. And this was not wholly by design, nor 
was it to obtain favor or political preferment. It was 
inherent in him, a part, of him, a spontaneous and in- 
voluntary manifestation of the soul. 

Through all bis mistakes which, as he was but mortal, 
were many — through all his lapses and faults which, 
as he was but human, were serious indeed — Plumb's 
life was an effort to acquit himself conscientiously of 
the weight and pressure of the unseen hand laid on 
him by the Infinite. 

William E. Connelley. 
Topi /•'", Ko8., March 15, 1013. 



CONTENTS 



Preface v 

CHAPTEB l'AQE 

I The Plumb Family 3 

II Preston B. Plumb 7 

III Kenyon College 11 

IV The Xenia News 16 

V The First Trip to Kansas 23 

VI First in Kansas 30 

VII Bleeding Kansas 35. 

VIII Second Trip to Kansas 43 

IX Mariposa 51 

X Emporia Town Company 59 

XI Emporia 63 

XII The Lecompton Constitution .... 73 

XIII The Leavenworth Constitution ... 78 

XIV Troubles in Southern Kansas .... 83 
XV The Bar and the Legislature .... 86 

XVI Supreme Court Eeporter— First Practice 95 

XVII Emporia and the Civil War 98 

XVIII The Eleventh Kansas 107 

XIX Cane Hill US 

XX Prairie Grove 115 

XXI Buck & Ball 126 

XXII VanBuren 130 

XXIII Chief-of-Staff 133 

XXIV The District of the Border .... 136 



CONTENTS 

dlATTKB PAGE 

XXV Collapse of the Military Prison . . . 145 

XXVI The Lawrence Massacre 151 

XXVII The Pursuit of Quantrill 158 

XXVIII Provost Marshal 168 

XXIX Independence — Humboldt — Olathe . . 176 

XXX The Price Raid 180 

XXXI Wyoming 193 

XXXII Plumb as a Soldier 202 

XXXIII Back to Civil Life 209 

XXXIV Banker 216 

XXXV Texas Cattle — Mining . , 221 

XXXVI Election to the Senate 224 

XXXVII Assuming Duties of Senator .... 233 

XXXVIII Forty-Sixth Congress 237 

XXXIX The Nomination of Garfield .... 245 

XL Forty-Seventh Congress 248 

XLI Funding Act — Treasury Surplus . . .251 

XLII Civil Service 257 

XLIII Reelection 261 

XLIV The Forty-Eighth Congress . . . .265 

XLV Blaine 274 

XLVI Forty-Ninth Congress 278 

XLVII Railroad Passes 287 

XLVIII Diplomatic Service 289 

XLIX Fiftieth Congress 293 

L Department of Agriculture .... 306 

LI Harrison 309 

LII Third Election 312 

LIII Deep-Haeboe Convention 316 

\AY Fifty-First Congress 319 

LV Oklahoma 327 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

LVI INSPIRATION for Drama 334 

LVII Silver 340 

LVIII Public Lands 352 

LIX The Tariff 363 

LX Sugar 377 

LXI Newspapers . . ; 381 

LXII Habits and Characteristics .... 386 

LXIII Capacity for Work 393 

LXIV Charity 399 

LXV A Helpful Man 402 

LXVI Stories 411 

LXVII Influence in the Senate 417 

LXVIII The Last Campaign 420 

LXIX Last Illness and Death 427 

LXX The Last Rites 432 

APPENDICES 

Appendix A 439 

Appendix B 449 

Index 457 



THE LIFE OF 
PRESTON B. PLUMB 



THE LIFE OF 
PRESTON B. PLUMB 



CHAPTER I 

THE PLUMB FAMILY 

The Plumb family is of Norman origin, and came 
into Britain with William the Conqueror. The progen- 
itor of the family was Robertus Plumme, who, some- 
thing more than a century after Hastings, appears on the 
Great Roll of Normandy for the year 1180 ; and on the 
same roll for 1195 his name stands as Robert Plome. 
The record is complete and the succession unbroken to 
the Plumbs of this day. 1 

Migrations strengthen races. It would be interest- 
ing to note how the people of Southern Scandinavia 
from their low-lying ocean shores, their mud-banks and 
sounds and bays, their swamp-forests and salt-marshes, 
took to the sea and beat about the bounds of the known 
world. They fastened upon Britain, they became the 
scourge of the Mediterranean coasts, they seized north- 
ern Europe and founded the Russian Monarchy, and 
their battle-axes rang on the iron gates of Constanti- 
nople. Their brethren to the south destroyed the Ro- 
man Empire. These ruthless Northmen overran some 



i The authority from which the facts concerning the Plumb family 
were drawn is The Plumb Genealogy, by H. B. Plumb, Peeley, Lu- 
zerne County, Pa., Second Edition, 1893. It begins with Robertus 
Plumme, on the Great Roll of Normandy, 1180, and traces his 
descendants down to the present day. 

3 



4 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

principalities of France and there became Frenchmen 
— the Normans. In course of the development of the 
countries taken and held by these barbarians who turned 
the world upside down, the Normans formulated a 
claim to England, and William led his hosts over-sea 
and conquered and held it. In the mailed ranks of 
those adventurous hordes were the first Plumbs known 
to us, the forbears of all of that name now living in 
England and America. Beyond that they are hidden 
by that veil of obscurity which time hangs between us 
and the ancient days. 

John Plume was the progenitor of the Plumbs in 
America. He sold Ridgewell Hall, Essex, England, and 
came, in 1G35, in his own ship, to Wethersfield, Connecti- 
cut, where he was one of the first settlers and propri- 
etors. 

Ichabod Plumb, a descendant of John Plume, was 
born at Middletown, Connecticut, March 11, 1777. 
From Middletown he moved to Hartford. In the fall of 
1804 he moved from Hartford to Worthington, Ohio, 
where he lived tw r o years, then moved to Berkshire, Dela- 
ware County. On the main street of the village he built 
his shop. There he was a blacksmith, and he manufac- 
tured wagons. He tilled a considerable farm, and he 
built and operated a mill for carding wool. He was an 
Episcopalian, and he was the principal member of the 
Episcopal Church which he had caused to be established 
at Berkshire. He was a Major in the Ohio State 
Militia, and he bore that rank in the War of 1812, though 
an account of his services has not been preserved. 

Of the sons of Ichabod Plumb one was David Plumb, 
no was born at Berkshire, Ohio, July 9, 1812, and w r as 
bred to the trade of wagon-maker, though he did not be- 
come a blacksmith. He remained strong in his attach- 
ment to the Episcopal Church; and he supported him- 
self and family by working at his trade. 2 

a At Marysville, Ohio, David Plumb entered into partnership with 



THE PLUMB FAMILY 5 

At Berkshire, December 14, 183C, David Plumb was 
married to Miss Hannah Maria Bierce. The Bierce 
family is one of the oldest in New England, having come 
into Massachusetts in the days of Governor Winslow. 
Members of the family settled in Connecticut at an early 
day, and in the general westward trend their descend- 
ants passed into New York. Immediately after the 
Revolution Hugh White, of Middletown, Connecticut, 
together with others, secured a patent to land in Oneida 
County, New York. In 1784 they moved there and 
made a settlement which later became Whitesborough. 
These were the first white settlers in the State west 
of the Germans living then on the Mohawk. Whites- 
borough was on the Indian trail leading to the Great 
Lakes at what is now the city of Buffalo. Many Con- 
necticut people followed the White colony and settled 
at Whitesborough, Utica, and other towns in Oneida 
County, which remains to this day a community with 
marked New England characteristics. 3 

Winslow Bierce was one of the pioneers who went 
with Hugh White into the wilderness of Central New 
York. He was born in Connecticut in 1774, and his 
family furnished many western pioneers. Lucius V. 
Bierce moved from Cornwall, Connecticut, to Nelson, 
Portage County, Ohio, in 1816, where he died Nov. 11, 
1S7G, aged seventy-five. 4 

Winslow Bierce lived at Utica, New York, where he 
kept a hotel and dealt in horses. He was forceful and 
energetic, and a successful business man. In 1817 he 
moved to Berkshire. 

Hannah Maria Bierce was four years old when her 

one Thomas Turner for the purpose of manufacturing an improved 
plow for breaking land. This plow had a steel mold-board, which 
was made by Turner, and all the woodwork was made by Plumb. 
They patented this implement and made and sold it quite extensively. 

3 For an account of this settlement see Historical Collections of 
New York by Barber and Hotce. 1842, p. 382. 

* See Tracts, Western Reserve Historical Society, Vol. II, p. 4. 



6 TUE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

father moved from "York State" to Berkshire, where 
she grew to womanhood. She was ambitious and of 
a sanguine temperament. Perseverance and persist- 
ence were her strongest traits. She was possessed of 
a glowing enthusiasm. Failure of plans did not dis- 
courage her. Her energy was inexhaustible, and her 
industry was tireless. And we shall see that with these 
qualities she endowed her children. 8 



Bin speaking of his mother George rinmb said: "My mother 
was very active and my father just as quiet as men ever are. He 
read a great deal but never said much ; he had a good memory. My 
mother was a great talker, a small woman and very energetic. She 
was ambitious and always had great plans for her children." 



CHAPTER II 

PRESTON B. PLUMB 

The birth of him of whom this biography is written, 
was October 12, 1837, at Berkshire, Delaware County, 
Ohio. He was the first-born of David and Hannah 
Maria (Bierce) Plumb. He was called Preston. 

At Berkshire the schoolmaster boarded at the house 
of David Plumb, and wished to take Preston to school 
when he was in his fourth year. The parents feared 
he would only make trouble there, but when the teacher 
insisted, they permitted him to go. Once at school, he 
fell to work just as he saw the other pupils doing, and 
he made good progress. Whatever was put into his 
hands he mastered. He was overflowing with energy, 
and this made him adventurous, resourceful, and dar- 
ing. He was of a practical turn and was never idle. 
While he enjoyed the sports and amusements of the 
boys of his own age and engaged in them with all his 
might, he never wandered about the streets and lanes. 
As soon as he was strong enough to do so he wished to 
work at something. What he saw others do he at- 
tempted, and he was elated and sometimes excited when 
he had succeeded in his efforts. 1 



i When he was six years old a serious accident resulted from his 
fervor, as his sister remembered : " It was when we lived in Berlin 
Township, after we left Berkshire. Mother rode up to Berkshire 
and left Preston and me with father. He was husy in his shop and 
did not pay much attention to us. Preston came running to me. 
much elated, and said. ' Ellen, come out here, I can chop wood.' I 
went out, not knowing the danger. He picked up a heavy axe and 
began to chop. I was near him and the axe slipped and came down 
on my foot." 

7 



s THE LIFE OF PKESTON B. PLUMB 

When about ten years old he went with others to a 
\\i»od to celebrate the Fourth of July. Near this wood 
was a barn iu which were chained two pet bears. 
Swings for the children were erected in this barn. 
Preston was helping swing the girls, when he slipped 
and fell within reach of one of the bears, which im- 
mediately seized him. The children ran. The growl- 
ing of the bear which had him, with the scent of blood, 
maddened the other bear, and while they were fighting 
he rolled himself out of their reach. His wounds were 
found to be serious. The weather was extremely hot, 
and it was not believed he could survive his injuries. 
But he recovered, though he carried to the grave scars 
from tooth and claw. While he was in bed he read 
Merle d'Aubigne's History of the Reformation, getting 
then his first knowledge of the life and character of 
Martin Luther. 

Intimate friends of Plumb will remember that in his 
youth he was called "Bony" by his companions. He 
received the name from this circumstance: Near the 
old country schoolhouse where he went to school, in the 
long winters of Ohio, there was a considerable pond. 
Skating on the ice in this pond was one of the amuse- 
ments of the pupils. One spring when the ice had 
melted soinewhat and was broken into blocks the boys 
made it the means of showing their reckless spirit, 
crossing the pond by jumping from one piece of ice to 
another. It was finally decided that the pond could 
nof be again crossed in that way. Plumb declared that 
he could cross it once more. The boys said he could not 
do it — thai no one could do it. He ran swiftly to the 
pond, and, by bounding lightly and quickly from block 
to block, crossed it. In the old McOuffey Third Keader, 
iu use in flic schools of that day, there is a picture of 
Bonaparte crossing the Alps to illustrate a lesson from 
Scott's Life of Napoleon. When Plumb sprang to the 
bank on iho other side of the pond they exclaimed, 



CHILDHOOD 9 

" Bonaparte has crossed the Alps ! " From that time 
they called him " Bony," and he carried that name even 
to Kansas. 2 

Of the influence of the mother in this family it may 
be said that she was always planning great things for 
her children to accomplish in life. She had perfect 
faith in the ability of her children to carry out the 
plans she made for them, and she was singularly suc- 
cessful in imparting this feelings She inculcated the 
expectation of success ; and she taught that failure and 
discouragement should but move them to greater ex- 
ertions, and that a thing begun must be completed. All 
this was impressed more by attitude and example than 
by precept, more by the feeling existing in the home 
than by discourse. She did not minimize the misfor- 
tunes of disease, or death, or those dispensations of 
Providence which render futile all efforts of the most 
industrious, but where success was possible even under 
the most adverse conditions, she believed it should be 
attained. 

It was the desire of David Plumb that none of his 
sons should follow the family trade of wagon-maker. 
Preston sometimes worked in the shop beside his father, 
doing that which his strength and skill would permit 
him to undertake. But for a boy of his ability, directed 
by the ambition and solicitude of a mother such as his, 
the business of a wagon-maker did not promise a satis- 
factory future. 

Mature character reflects largely the influences which 

2 No middle name was given him and he never adopted one, but 
he did add the letter B for a middle initial, as he believed it 
improved the form of his signature and made his name more easily 
used in conversation, the habit of addressing one by the initials 
being much in vogue at that time. In recent years there has been 
some newspaper discussion as to what this initial stood for. Among 
numerous conjectures the one most in favor was that it was for 
Bicrce, the family name of his mother. It was suggested by the 
name " Bony," but he did not adopt that name. He invariably 
wrote his name, P. B. Plumb. 



10 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

predominate in the environment of the childhood home. 
The virtues of thrift, work, reliance on self, ingenuity 
and perseverance were found in the homes of the pio- 
neers of Ohio. These, in addition to those referred to 
herein, were found in use and practice in the home 
of David Plumb. 



CHAPTER III 

KENYON COLLEGE 

In the spring of 1843 David Plumb moved from Berk- 
shire to a farm in Berlin Township, where he remained 
until the spring of 1840, when he settled at Marysville, 
county-seat of Union County, Ohio. There he opened a 
shop and followed his trade. His children attended 
the schools of the town. By the year 1849 his son 
Preston had made all the progress possible in the schools 
at Marysville. He was anxious to continue his studies, 
but his father was not able to bear the expense of send- 
ing him to college. It w r as necessary for him to strike 
out for himself, and he determined to do it. 

Bishop Philander Chase, a native of New Hampshire, 
settled at Worthington, Ohio, in 1817, and established 
the Worthington Female Seminary. There, in 1818, he 
was made the first Bishop of the Episcopal Church in 
Ohio. In 1826 he founded Kenyon College at Gambier, 
Ohio. This college was first chartered as a theological 
seminary, and through the efforts of Bishop Chase was 
endowed with land, of which it had some eight thousand 
acres of the best in the State. Later it was made a 
general school with various departments, the one to 
which boys were admitted being called Milnor Hall. 1 
The college, in 1849, maintained a church paper, The 

i " Away off to the right, among the trees, Is Milnor Hall, and 
scattered about In various directions near and far, private dwellings, 
offices and various structures, some plain and others adorned, some 
in full view and others partly hid by the undulations of the ground, 
trees and shrubbery." — Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio, edition 
of 1847, under Knox County. 

11 



12 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. TLUMB 

Western Episcopalian, a publication issued largely in 
its own interest. In the office of this paper were printed 
i he catalogues and such other documents as it was neces- 
sary for the college to publish. The Plumbs, then living 
;it Berkshire in an adjoining county, knew Bishop Chase 
and were familiar with his work in Ohio. Arrange- 
ments were made for Preston to go to Kenyon College, 
where he was to work in the printing office to pay his 
way at Milnor Hall. He went there in the summer of 
1849, when he was not quite twelve years old. 

The expenses of living at Kenyon College w T ere what 
we should consider small at this time. The annual 
charges were: 

For instruction, $30.00. 
For board at the college table, $40.00. 
Room rent in a room with a stove, $4.00. 
Room rent in a room with a fire-place, $6.00. 2 

As to regulations we are told that the boys had " to 
sweep their own rooms, make their own beds and fires, 
bring their own water, black their own boots, if they 
were blacked, and take an occasional turn at grubbing 
in the fields or working on the roads." And, it is added 
" the discipline was somewhat strict and the toil per- 
haps severe, but the few pleasures that were allowed 
were t borough ly enjoyed. A sophomore was commanded 
to the room of a professor, and severely beaten with a 
rod. For the first time in his life a Mississippi fresh- 
man received bodily chastisement, and even Mr. Spooner, 
the vice-president, took care to see that it was well 
laid on.'' 3 



- Howe's Historical Collections, edition of 1800, Vol. 1, p. 988, says: 

' The college formed a large landed estate, and kept a hotel and 

shops, mills and stores. One looks enriously to-day at its inventory 

of poods — pots, pans, tuhs, saucers, spoons, white dimity, bed 

curtains, mixed all up with oxen, cows and vinegar." 

■ This strict discipline and severe toil seems to have produced good 
results, few schools having to its credit men who rose to higher sta- 






KENYON COLLEGE 13 

Just how long Plumb remained at Kenyon College 
is not known. He did not remain long enough to take a 
degree. Nor do we know the proportion of his time 
spent in the printing office. In many of the sketches 
of his life published in the Kansas papers when he was 
first elected United States Senator it is stated that he 
was three years in the printing office in which he was 
apprenticed to learn his trade, and some of them in- 
directly mentioned Kenyon College, the Emporia News 
giving the name of the college publication. There is 
good reason to believe that he was there about three 
years. lie returned to Marysville to work as compositor 
on the Tribune of that town. C. S. Hamilton was then 
both editor and proprietor of that paper. Early in 1852 
an issue of the paper was so poorly printed that it could 
not be read, and J. W. Dumble, then foreman in a 
printing office at Mt. Gilead, Ohio, criticised its ap- 
pearance. Hamilton rode horseback the forty miles to 
Mt. Gilead to induce Dumble to go to Marysville and 
take charge of the Tribune office. Dumble had not long 
been in charge of that office when Plumb was taken on 



tions in life. Some of them were R. B. Hayes, President of the 
United States ; Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War under President 
Lincoln ; David Davis, Associate Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court, 
United States Senator from Illinois and acting Vice-president 1881-83 ; 
Henry Winter Davis, the statesman and author ; David Turpie, United 
States Senator from Indiana ; and many others. Secretary Stanton 
often said, " If I am anything, I owe it to Kenyon College." President 
Hayes wrote, "That, with the exception of the four years spent in the 
Union army, no other period of my life, in cherished recollections, 
could be compared with the time I spent at Kenyon College." That 
eminent statesman and jurist, Salmon P. Chase, was a student at 
Kenyon College ; he was Governor of Ohio and United States Senator 
from that State, and he was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of 
the United States. Another noted son of Kenyon College was 
William Walker, chief of the Wyandot Indians at Upper Sandusky 
and principal man of the tribe after its migration to Kansas in 1843 ; 
he made the first effort to organize a Territory west of Missouri and 
was Provisional Governor of Nebraska Territory. This is a brilliant 
roll, not surpassed perhaps by that of any other school west of the 
Alleghanies. 



14 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

the force, "as an apprentice," as Dumble says. This 
was his first work as a printer outside the Western 
Episcopalian office, and, as he was young and boyish in 
appearance, he may have been regarded as an apprentice. 
Concerning Plumb's work, Dumble adds: "He mani- 
fested a wonderful tact at the labor of typesetting, and 
soon became an expert." 

It is the recollection of his brother George that Plumb 
did not work continuously in the Tribune office — that 
at times there was not enough work to keep all the force 
employed. Josephus Plumb took his first lesson in type- 
sctting in the office under the eye of his brother and 
rapidly acquired proficiency in the art. No doubt he 
was entered there as an apprentice, a circumstance which 
might have confused Dumble when in after years he 
came to write what he could recall of the youth of 
Preston B. Plumb, who at Marysville, perfected himself 
in his craft. 

Some months after Plumb went to work in the Tribune 
office another paper was started in Marysville. The 
proprietor was Joseph Cassell, and his paper was in- 
tended to be a rival of the Tribune. The office was an 
extensive one, and it was the design of Cassell to do 
book-printing and binding, to manufacture blank-books, 
and to do general commercial printing, as well as to 
publish his paper. Cassell failed, and the press stood 
idle in the closed office. Plumb proposed to Dumble 
thai they buy the plant of the defunct journal. They 
discussed the matter from every point of view, carrying 
it finally to the proprietor of the Tribune. He had 
nothing of encouragement to offer, of course, for it was 
to his advantage to have the rival paper remain dead. 
But notwithstanding the attitude of Mr. Hamilton, 
which was to have been expected, they persisted in their 
inclination to buy the office and revive the paper. See- 
ing thai they were disposed to go on with their plans, 
Hamilton sought to defeat them, knowing that the new 



KEN YON COLLEGE 15 

proprietors would have many claims to public favor 
which the old management had not been able to com- 
mand. He proposed that the office be moved to some 
other town. He offered to give the boys one hundred 
dollars toward the purchase price if they would take 
the plant, out of the county. 

Plumb had no money, and Dumble must have had little 
or none. Plumb appealed to his parents. He was sure 
of his ability to revive the paper and put it on a paying 
basis. His mother entered heartily into his plans. The 
home was mortgaged and the office purchased mainly 
with the proceeds. Where to take it was the next ques- 
tion, and Xenia was selected — why, we do not know. 
The office was taken there and the Xenia News estab- 
lished. The first issue of the paper was the 24th of 
February, 1854. It was a six column folio — columns 
of the old measurement, wider than is usual at this time. 
The paper was neatly printed and almost devoid of 
typographical errors, giving it a fine appearance. 
Plumb seemed to have managed the business. At the 
time of the first issue of his paper he was but four 
months past his sixteenth birthday. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE XENIA NEWS 

The principal difference between the two great 
political parties prior to 1850 was one of interpretation 
of tlit' Federal Constitution. The Democratic party had 
contended for a strict construction, counting the consti- 
tution a compact between sovereign States, insisting 
that the government formed under it was limited to those 
functions explicitly authorized by its terms. The Whigs 
believed that by the adoption of the constitution the 
Suites were merged into a nation with the right to do 
any and all tilings necessary for its growth and main- 
tenance whether directly specified in that instrument 
or not. They were known as loose constructionists, and 
were favorable to protective tariffs, internal improve- 
ments, and national bank currency, and they came 
finally to insist that the Federal Government could and 
should control slavery in the Territories. They were 
the successors of the Federalists, from whom they in- 
herited their principles and tendencies, which had been 
formulated chiefly by Alexander TTamilton. 

Neither of these parties was sectional, and up to 1850 
the Whigs did not constitute an anti-slavery party, nor 
the Democrats a pro-slavery party. In 1848, for Presi- 
dent the Whigs nominated Zachary Taylor, of Louisiana, 
;i slave-holder, and did not adopt a platform. The 
Democrats nominated Lewis Cass, of Michigan, on a 
Btrid construction platform. The Whigs were success- 
ful, Imi in 1850, Henry Clay, their leader, proposed a 
compromise of (he conflicting claims growing out of 

1G 



THE XENIA NEWS 17 

slavery and related questions. The principles of this 
compromise were enacted into laws, that having the 
greatest influence on the future of the country being the 
Fugitive Slave Law, which was muck more stringent 
than any former statute on the subject. Fugitive slaves 
were to be by Federal officials restored, wherever found, 
to their owners without trial by jury, and all citizens 
were expected to aid in such restoration. The people 
of the North objected to being set to slave hunting for 
Southern masters, and some States enacted what was 
known as personal liberty laws, designed to protect free 
negroes and fugitive slaves ; and the Underground Rail- 
road, over which fugitive slaves were assisted to reach 
Canada, became a well-organized and efficient insti- 
tution. 

The Fugitive Slave Law killed the Whig party. Its 
dissolution furnished the material for numerous small 
groups, none of them of enough importance to be called 
a national party. The Northern Whigs called them- 
selves Anti-Nebraska Men, as they opposed the first 
attempts to organize a Nebraska Territory west of Mis- 
souri and Iowa. The Barnburners became the Free- 
Soil Democrats. All shades of political opinion were 
represented by groups, down to Hunkers and Know- 
Nothings. As the slavery conflict developed there came 
a gradual realignment of parties, most of these minority 
groups going over to the Anti-Nebraska Men, who, in 
1855, had called themselves the Republican party, and 
in 1856 a National Republican party was organized. 
The new party was in fact successor to the Federalist 
and Whig parties, and it inherited their loose construc- 
tion principles, the policies of protective tariff, internal 
improvements, national bank currency, and it added the 
burning issue of opposition to the extension of slavery. 

The Democratic party became a pro-slavery party, and 
the institution of slavery entered on a contest for un- 
limited extension. Political excitement stirred the 



18 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

country, and fires of strife were lighted which burned 
down to the field of Appomattox. With the pioneers 
from New England there came into Ohio an efficient 
system of public education, and the common intelligence 
was high throughout the State. Where the sons of New 
England had settled there was marked opposition to the 
Democratic policy of slavery-extension. To Canada, 
Through Ohio, was the shortest route to freedom for the 
fugitive slave, and there the Underground Railroad 
reached its highest efficiency. Political contests were 
heated and campaigns were bitter, and while the Dem- 
ocratic party was strong in Ohio, the State settled cer- 
tainly and surely to the Republican column. 

It was in the murky days of those times that Plumb 
founded the Xcnia News. The Plumbs were strong 
Anti-slavery people from the time the slavery question 
became the absorbing question of national politics. 
What their political affiliation had been up to that time 
is not known, but, like other families, they probably 
were divided. Preston B. Plumb had decided convic- 
tions and felt deeply on the engrossing events of the 
time, and it is known that he spoke through his paper 
in no uncertain terms, though no files of the News for 
the first two years are extant. 

The audacity of this boy of sixteen in going to a 
si range city where the press was already ably repre- 
sented to found an entirely new T journal is worth some 
attention. Xenia is sixty-four miles northeast of Cin- 
cinnati, and in 1854 had some five thousand inhabitants. 
It was a town of culture and the home of distinguished 
people. William Davis Gallagher was a poet famous 
in his day. He founded the Backwoodsman in 1830, 
when but twenty-two, and became one of the foremost 
editors of the West. Coates Kinney also was a poet 
whose reputation was established in 1849 when he pub- 
lished his " Rain on the Roof," and his " Ohio Centennial 
Ode' 1 was a production of high order. When a boy 



THE XENIA NEWS 19 

of fourteen William Dean Howells was living with his 
father's family on the Little Miami two or three miles 
from Xenia, and his poem " Lost Boyhood " is intended 
to preserve the memories of his residence there. White- 
law Keid was born near Xenia, 1 and he rose to fame 
by a brilliant course in journalism, succeeding Plumb 
as editor of the Xenia News after its consolidation with 
the Torchlight. Granville Moody, a great preacher in 
his day, lived in Xenia, and a friendship was formed 
between him and Plumb which was broken only by 
death. 

The Kansas-Nebraska bill had been before Congress 
exactly one month when the first number of the Xenia 
News appeared. Feeling was intense, and there never 
was a more propitious time for starting a newspaper. 
Plumb, deeply imbued with the anti-slavery sentiment, 
as his forefathers had been, vigorously opposed the 
bill. In addition to his editorial work in opposition he 
employed a minister, then popular for his sturdy anti- 
slavery attitude, to write for the paper a series of arti- 
cles on the subject. 2 

While Plumb devoted time and space to national af- 
fairs he did not neglect local matters. He seems to have 
known instinctively that the success of a paper depends 
on a full and intelligent digest of the current events of 
the community where it is published. He was, in fact, 
a pioneer in this field, now recognized as the basis of 
success in newspaper management. 3 The local depart - 

iHe was bora Oct. 27, 1837. Plumb was bora Oct. 12. 1837. 

a This minister, Rev. J. D. Liggett, afterwards moved to Kan- 
sas, and, later, to Detroit, from wbicb city, May 4, 1892, he wrote 
a letter to B. F. Flenniken, giving an account of his association 
with Plumb. While there are some errors in his account, due to 
lapse of memory, it is mainly correct and is valuable as being the 
only account which shows much of Plumb's life at Xenia. 

» Jacob Stotler published an article in the Sumner County 
(Kansas) Press, which was printed in the Memorial Volume, p. 21. 
In it he says: 

Plumb conducted a column in his paper under the striking head, 



20 THE LIFE OF PRESTON 15. PLUMB 

menf of the country newspaper was then little known. 
On this subject his partner afterwards wrote of the 
paper as follows : 

The location was a good one, the paper prospered, and is now 
alive. We were both strangers in Xenia, but did the best we 
could. Young Wnitelaw Reid (now famous as the author of 
Ohio in the War, and at present editor of the New York Trib- 
une ) was a clerk in a dry goods store under the office. He was a 
sharp bright young man, and a great favorite with all, and well 
posted on Xenia people and Xenia history. Young Reid on 
many occasions wrote up society notes and locals for us, always 
under the ban of secrecy, as it might injure the trade in the 
store were it known that he was writing for the Xenia News. 

The real success of the paper, however, resulted from 
the energy and ability of Plumb. " Plumb was ener- 
getic, forceful, of remarkable courage and get-up," writes 
one of his partners, "lie did everything about the 
paper; set type, run the hand-presses, gathered news; 
anything there was to be done; was quick to arrive at 
conclusions; very positive; at times of quick temper, 
but soon over it." Another partner, Liggett, wrote the 
following: 



*o 



lie was a good printer, i.e., was a rapid and accurate type- 
setter and pressman. All the press work on country papers 
was <lone by hand power. Mr. Plumb was, for his age, un- 
usually mature and manly, intelligent, energetic and industrious. 
The following incident will illustrate his rare pluck and persis- 
tence which were characteristic of him through life. There was 
an election of county officers and neither political party had 
made any nominations. There was a free fight for all the offices. 
The big prize was the office of treasurer, for which there were 
sixteen candidates, one of whom was the editor of the other 
paper of the town, and as a consequence the printing of all the 
tickets, with their almost endless combinations, came to our 
office. Plumb was the only pressman, and for several days he 

"Our Pine Box." The name was a misnomer for Plumb, because 
\\f do tint believe he ever sat on a store box long enough to catch 
an item, lie rather caught them on the fly. 



THE XENIA NEWS 21 

ran that press almost day and night, and the result was a felon 
on the middle finger of his right hand, hut he never let up on 
his job. I pleaded with him in vain to quit and let the tickets 
alone. Ahout sundown of the day before election the last order 
for tickets was idled, when one of the candidates for treasurer 
came into the front room where I was and said he wanted ten 
thousand more tickets, printed different from what he had. I 
said it could not be done in our office for any amount of money, 
as our only pressman had a felon on his right hand and should 
not do any more. Plumb overheard the conversation and spoke 
right out, " pshaw, take the order ; I'll print the tickets." I 
protested in vain. He took the job and finished it at one o'clock 
the next morning. 

Dumblc sold his interest in the paper to Plumb, but 
when he did so is not known. On this point the state- 
ments of the partners are in conflict. Dumble was with 
the paper as late as 1856. Plumb sold the Dumble in- 
terest to J. D. Liggett, whom he had employed to write 
the articles on the political tendencies of the times. 
After Liggett bought into the business Plumb lived in 
his home until he came to Kansas. Of this period and 
the habits of Plumb, Liggett wrote : 

This relation continued for about two years, during most of 
which time he boarded in my house. He was never idle. When 
he came to his meals he always had some book at hand to read 
if he was detained, and his reading was always of standard 
authors. He read rapidly and remembered well what he read. 

In March, 1856, Plumb advertised for a foreman for 
his office, and Jacob Stotler rode eighteen miles to 
Xenia and secured the place. The printers told Stotler 
that Plumb was a hard master and difficult to please, 
and predicted that he would not remain three weeks. 
Stotler found that Plumb was exacting but fair and 
just — that he hated a lazy man or a shirk — and that 
it was an easy matter to get along with him. A warm 
friendship soon developed between Plumb and Stotler 
and it continued without interruption for thirty-five 



22 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

years — until Plumb's death. Concerning Plumb's life 
at Xenia Stotler wrote: 

He was then a slim awkward boy of nineteen [eighteen] but 
with the same habits of industry that characterized his entire 
career. In the Xenia News office Plumb began his earnest 
life work. He took to politics naturally. The old paper there 
was published by Eobert McBratney, who afterwards came to 
Kansas and died some years ago. The young editor had an am- 
bition to beat his competitor on all occasions and generally did 
60. We remember that in the summer of 1856 he went into the 
party convention and overturned the plans of McBratney and 
the politicians and won a substantial victory for his new paper. 
While he was full of the life and fun of youth, his associates in 
Xenia were mostly men considerably older than himself. Even 
then he was consulted by the leading men of the town. His 
power to see the effect of action was always wonderful. 

With his other work at Xenia, Plumb studied law un- 
der Colonel Lowe. He devoted to this study what time 
he could spare from the arduous labors of his office. As 
much as he loved newspaper work and as well as he 
was doing in it, he intended and even then expected to 
enter on a wider field and seek greater opportunities 
than those presented in the office of a country newspaper. 
At Xenia Plumb began to find himself — began to put 
his powers to the test — began to discover his ca- 
pacity — began to see what he might be able to do in 
conflict with other men — began to feel that his achieve- 
ments were to be limited only by the degree of energy 
he exerted — first began to feel that thrill of joy which 
rewards him who seriously enters the battle and over- 
comes. 



CHAPTER V 

THE FIRST TRIP TO KANSAS 

TnE first act in the great tragedy of enslaving Kansas 
was closed with the sacking of Lawrence by the Border- 
Ruffians, May 21, 1856. Kansas lay prostrate and 
bleeding. Slavery had been established in the State 
and was triumphant and exultant. In this extremity 
the Free-State people appealed for help to the loyal 
North. Many of them were sent to tell abroad the out- 
rages suffered by those who stood for freedom. Among 
those who went forth to cry the cause of liberty was 
Marcus J. Parrott, a South Carolinian who had reached 
Kansas through a residence in Ohio. He was an orator 
and an ardent Free-State man. In June he made the 
tour of Ohio. On Saturdav, the 14th, he addressed a 
meeting at Xenia and reviewed the action of the Border- 
Ruffians in Kansas. Plumb attended the meeting and 
was deeply moved by what he heard there. He wrote 
an account of the meeting while still burning with in- 
dignation. This account appeared in the News on June 
20th, the first issue after the meeting and says : 

He (Parrott) confirmed all the reports of outrage committed 
by the prowling marauders from Missouri and other states, upon 
the unoffending people of Kansas, which many self-wise persons 
affect to deny. Eighteen out of the nineteen election districts 
in the Territory were overrun by a large body of armed men on 
the day of the election of members of the legislature, and the 
elections were carried by the grossest fraud and outrageous vio- 
lence. After the invaders had thus seized the legislative power, 
the next step was to disfranchise all the Free-State men by re- 
quiring them to take the oath to support all the obnoxious laws 

23 



24 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

they had enacted, before they could be permitted to vote. A 
more bold and tyrannical usurpation than this could not be con- 
ceived of. The people were thus driven back upon their original 
rights, and pursued the justifiable course of establishing a pro- 
visional government of their own. But for pursuing this course 
of policy the bloodhounds of slavery had been let loose upon 
them, to murder, rob, burn, steal and otherwise destroy their 
property. The people of the Territory are poor and cannot 
hold out for a long time, under the wholesale robberies that are 
permitted upon them, unless speedy and efficient aid is afforded 
them. Mr. Parrott's object was to solicit such aid for his suffer- 
ing brethren in Kansas. 

The Reverend Granville Moody and other citizens 
addressed the meeting, after which resolutions were 
adopted expressing sympathy with the Free-State peo- 
ple of Kansas, approving their course in taking up arms 
in their own defense, and pledging material aid. The 
sum of three hundred dollars was raised at the meeting, 
a committee was appointed to secure more, and five 
delegates were selected to attend a general convention 
of several States for a similar object to be held at Cleve- 
land on the 20th. Plumb had ended his article by say- 
ing, " It is the duty of all who have the means to spare 
to devote them at once to this sacred cause." 

Plumb was thoroughly aroused. The file of his paper 
shows he had hung upon the news from Kansas from the 
very first. When he heard the voice of Kansas plead- 
ing for justice the crisis of life confronted him. To that 
time his energy had been exerted to bring success to a 
precarious enterprise, and his paper had so taken root 
that it flourished long beyond its competitors and lives 
to tliis; day. Prudence, no doubt, held up her hand in 
warning, but her solicitude was unheeded. Such a 
crisis comes upon every soul — comes once, then comes 
no more. It is not opportunity, for that stands per- 
sistently beside man through life, but it is "the hour 
of fate." For Plumb it meant the abandonment of his 
purposes to that time, but " The way of life is wonder- 



THE FIRST TBIP TO KANSAS 25 

ful. It is by abandonment/' says Emerson in his most 
confident mood, and in justification writes for us that 
saving of Cromwell — " A man never rises so high as 
when he knows not whither he is going." It is not 
likely that Plumb reached his decision through any gen- 
eralizations of moral philosophy, but his determination 
was grand. Going to his partner, he said : " Joe, I am 
going to Kansas and help fight this outrage down, or 
die with the Free-State men." " I protested," Mr. 
Dumble afterwards wrote, " but go he would, and go he 
did." » 

Flumb started at once. At Cincinnati he took berth 
on a boat bound for St. Louis, where he arrived Tuesday 
morning, June 24th. The Missouri River had not yet 
been completely closed to emigrants bound for Kansas. 
On the 26th he wrote a letter to his paper 2 in which 
he said: 

Tuesday morning, last, I woke up to find myself in the 
" Mound City." The scene which first presented itself to my 
view was one of active bustle and busy life; over one hundred 
steamboats were lying at wharf loading and unloading, while 
the wharf itself was piled high with goods of all kinds. At Cairo 
we had quite an addition made to our crowd in the shape of 
a brother-in-law of Col. Jeff Buford, whose exploits in Kansas, 
at the head of his Alabama ruffians, are well known to your 
readers. This young sprig was direct from Alabama, and I sup- 
pose him to be a perfect type of the fire-eating chivalry of the 



i This is found in the letter of J. W. Dumble which was printed 
in the Meigs County, Ohio, News, already noticed. Dumble must have 
remained in the office of the Xcnia Neivs as a compositor, or, possibly, 
as foreman, after the sale of his interest. J. D. Liggett was the part- 
ner of Plumb at the time he decided to go to Kansas. But Liggett 
may not yet have paid Dumble for his interest in the paper. And 
Plumb may have gone with the same announcement to Liggett. In 
any event there is no doubt that Dumble records the exact facts. He 
says : " One morning young Plumb came to the office all excitement 
over some fresh outrage perpetrated by the Border-Ruffians." 

Then followed the conversation given in the text. 

2 Published in the issue of July 4. 



2G TnE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

South, inasmuch as he fully justified all the Kansas outrages 
and the beating of Sumner. His opinion of the whole matter 
was that if the President had sent a posse of soldiers into Law- 
rence and arrested Henry Ward Beecher while he was preaching 

treason to the d d rebels, there would have been an end to 

the whole affair! This is but a solitary specimen of many 
equally ridiculous, of the ignorance of the greater part of the 
South in regard to the real state of affairs in Kansas. . . . 

St. Louis contains about 100,000 inhabitants. The amount 
of shipping business done here is enormous. Even in this, the 
dullest season of the year, the wharf is filled to overflowing with 
freight, which does not seem to diminish in the least, although 
boats are constantly departing, bearing away enormous loads of 
it. St. Louis is the dirtiest, filthiest city it has ever been my mis- 
fortune to have been in. The streets are narrow and dirty; the 
houses are dingy and small; the people are dirty. The number 
of foreigners is very great. The heat is intense at present; 
yesterday the thermometer stood at 105 in the shade, and three 
persons died from effects of the excessive heat. 



Plumb remained at St. Louis until Tuesday, July 1, 
when at 1 :30 p. M. he continued on his way to Kansas 
over the Pacific Railroad. 3 The time spent in St. Louis 
was devoted to a gratification of his desire even at that 
time for knowledge of how great business affairs were 
conducted. His letter to the Xcnia Neics 4 contains an 
account of the manner in which the Pacific Railroad had 
been financied and shows that he had made himself 
familiar with the country through which it passed. His 
former letter had exhibited complete knowledge of 
political conditions in Missouri, the names of the candi- 
dates of the various parties, and how the election was 
likely to turn. 

Arriving at Jefferson City about half-past eight, and 
having less than two hours at night to remain there, 
Plumb was abb* to discover that it was not much of a 
business town : " It is a place of about 2000 inhabitants, 



» Now the Missouri Pacific Railroad. 
i Published in the issue of July 18. 



TIIE FIRST TRIP TO KANSAS 27 

contains the State House, penitentiary, and other public 
buildings, but it is not a place of much business." 

About ten o'clock P. M., he boarded the steamer 
Cataract, running to Weston in connection with the 
railroad, and continued his journey up the Missouri. 
He was anxious to see Lexington, where the Chicago 
Company of Free-State people had been disarmed a few 
days before, but as the boat passed this town in the 
night he did not see it. Under the head of " Slavery's 
Defenses " he described the fortifications he saw in 
Missouri : 

At Liberty (Liberty Landing) there were stationed two pieces 
of brass six-pounders, pointed toward the river, in order to blow 
out of the water any boat which was suspected of having on 
board " damned Abolitionists," and which refused to land. I 
saw upwards of twenty pieces of cannon, of different sizes, sta- 
tioned along the river bank, in Missouri, at different points, and 
all of them had been posted there for the same avowed object — 
that of preventing companies of " Abolitionists " from going 
into the Territory of Kansas. At Liberty we encountered a boat 
going down from which we learned that a company of Illinois 
emigrants, eighteen in number, had been disarmed at Leaven- 
worth City, and sent back, and that it was the intention of the 
" Border Ruffians " to search every boat going up the river at 
that point, and send back all the Abolitionists they could find. 
This news created a little flutter on board, and, in consequence, 
a couple of men from New Hampshire concluded to go back, 
and at the next landing they got off the boat to wait until they 
could get on board a boat going down stream. There were 
several armed Missourians aboard who were going up to Leaven- 
worth to " stay until after the election " in the Territory. 

The only accurate account of the turning back of these 
Illinois emigrants extant was written by Plumb in his 
next letter to the Xenia News and is given to show the 
fury of the Border-Ruffians at that time. 

The Illinois company, which was disarmed and sent back at 
this place, came up Wednesday on the steamer Arabia. Their 
rifles and revolvers were stowed away in sacks and boxes, and 



28 TIIE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

they were not armed at all, themselves, but the moment they 
were landed the boxes and sacks were broken open, and the arms 
taken out. Their carpet-sacks and trunks were also opened, and 
searched, and a sum of money taken. About sixty blankets, a 
large lot of plows, axes, hoes, and other agricultural implements 
were also taken and not returned. After having taken every- 
thing they could lay hands upon they put the emigrants on 
board a boat which was going down to St. Louis, and ordered 
them never to return to the Territory under the pains and penal- 
ties of death! Before they were sent away, however, they were 
taken before the mayor of the town and tried for treason against 
the United States! A messenger had been dispatched to the 
Fort for United States troops to protect the emigrants, but did 
not arrive until they had been sent away. Four of them es- 
caped at Leavenworth and another of them managed to get 
aboard another boat after proceeding down the river about three 
hundred miles, and came back there on Saturday morning, and 
went over to Lawrence immediately. 

There was a story long current that Plumb had ar- 
rived at Leavenworth with these Illinoisans and that he 
had a narrow escape with his life. It was said that 
Nicholas Verres Smith, a dashing and daring young 
Kentuckian who had recently arrived in Kansas in com- 
pany with his brother-in-law and guardian, H. P. John- 
son, and settled on Pilot Knob, rode into the ruffian 
mob and saved Plumb's life. It is impossible at this 
time to say how the story originated. The Illinois peo- 
ple arrived at Leavenworth on Saturday, June 28, while 
Plumb was still in St. Louis, and he did not even see 
thorn as they returned down the river. He knew Smith 
many years in Kansas and elsewhere as a brilliant but 
erratic writer. H. P. Johnson came near defeating 
Charles Robinson for the nomination of Governor at the 
oloot ion under the Wyandotte Constitution. Both were 
Free-State men. Johnson had brought his slaves from 
Kentucky to Kansas and sot them free. He was made 
Colonel of the Fifth Kansas and was killed at the head 
<if his troops charging into Morristown, Mo., Sept. 17, 



THE FIRST TRIP TO KANSAS 29 

1861, the first Federal officer killed west of the Mis- 
sissippi. 5 



Bin a letter to the St. Louis (Mo.) Globe-Democrat, date not 
known. Colonel Richard J. Ilinton gives an elaborate account of this 
matter, and while erroneous as to Plumb, it preserves valuable his- 
torical matter. Hinton was usually accurate in his writings. He, in 
this instance, confounded two incidents, one of which occurred as 
Plumb went down the Missouri River on his way back to Ohio: 

Here is a more curious history linking the past with the present. 
Hampton Perry Johnson was another high-spirited daring Kentuck- 
ian. He had married a Miss Smith, and with her had taken the 
guardianship of her younger brother and sister. Johnson and the 
Smiths came to Leavenworth, bringing their slaves with them. They 
took land on Pilot Knob, near Leavenworth, overlooking what is now 
part of the city. There with the work of their slaves, they made a 
home. It was in 1S56. Young Smith was about to enter Harvard. 
He was the handsomest youth on all the border. One day a boat 
landed at I oavenworth and put off a company of Illinois colonists. 
A Pro-Slavery mob gathered. The decree was that the colonists 
must go back down the river. No more Free-State men must come 
in by way of the Missouri River. One of the colonists, a young prin- 
ter from Xenia, Ohio, demurred to the decision He announced his 
decision to stay on Kansas soil. The mob threatened. The printer 
talked back. It didn't take long to work up a feeling of fury. A 
rope was brought to hang the bold youth of nineteen years. Just 
then young Smith rode down upon the mob and scattered it, and 
saw the printer boy safe on board the boat. The printer went down 
the river, but a few weeks later he came back into Kansas by an- 
other route and with a rifle on his shoulder. Who was he? Pres- 
ton B. Plumb. 

Young Smith? Oh! Nicholas Verres Smith went to Harvard, 
married the daughter of Horace Greeley, became famous in a way 
as the handsomest man in the United States, and a few years ago 
rendered a bill to another Kentucky gentleman for performing the 
part of best man at the wedding. 



CHAPTER VI 

FIRST IN KANSAS 

At Kansas City, which he passed at six o'clock 
Thursday, Plumb saw on the river bank the iron orna- 
ments for the new State-house at Lecompton. A num- 
ber of Missourians embarked there for Leavenworth. 
They were armed to the teeth and depraved in appear- 
ance. It was near four o'clock on the morning of the 
" Glorious Fourth," as he wrote, that Plumb arrived at 
Leavenworth and set foot on Kansas soil. The Ruffians 
were at the landing in force, and the boat was searched 
for Sharps' rifles. The noisy landing of so many Mis- 
sourians distracted the vigilance of the local guard, and 
Plumb went on shore without having been searched, 
although he was carrying a suspicious-looking bundle 
which had been entrusted to his care by a party at St. 
Louis to be delivered in Leavenworth. That everyone 
he saw in the town was armed with a " Colt " seemed 
odd to him. He found the location of the city beautiful 
— " such as I cannot do justice to." He walked to Fort 
Leavenworth in the afternoon, where he found but forty 
soldiers, the others having been sent to Topeka to dis- 
perse the Free-State Legislature. He learned much 
a I »out the business management of the Fort and returned 
to town in time to see numerous bands of Ruffians re- 
turn from the various barbecues which had been held 
in the country round about. He did not fail to note 
critically tin- material composing the army of subjuga- 
tion. A number of Buford's men were there, as were 
seventy-five of the company Avhich had come in from 

30 



FIRST IN KANSAS 31 

Georgia, a few days before. A large number of the 
" Law and Order " citizens passed under his notice. Al- 
together he saw some three hundred men under arms, 
and of them he wrote: "A rougher-looking set of men 
I certainly never saw. They were about half-drunk, 
and made the air ' hideous ' with, their blasphemy and 
imprecations." 

Some of the Pro-Slavery residents assured Plumb that 
if a fair expression could be had at the polls Kansas 
would be free. One of these owned four slaves, and an- 
other held a public place under the President. The lat- 
ter was pleased when told that Buchanan would be 
beaten in the North. But Plumb found that the Georgia 
bullies regarded as abolitionists and traitors all men 
who were not for Buchanan. The newspapers, which, 
he did not fail to visit, he found divided in sentiment, 
the Herald favoring the Border-Ruffians, and the 
Journal, edited by S. S. Good, of Ohio, standing for 
Fillmore for President. 

Plumb spent two days in Leavenworth, and on Satur- 
day morning he left by stage for Lawrence, where he 
arrived about three o'clock that day. 1 He did not re- 
main long in the town but went about four miles west to 
visit friends from Ohio, and remained a day or two, 
then went on to Lecompton. There he found the Ter- 
ritorial officers, as well as Sheriff Jones, and he found, 
also, that one-third of the inhabitants, about one hun- 
dred, were " armed loafers that were used as a posse to 
enforce behests of a drunken nigger-driving crew of of- 
ficials, who are sucking the life-blood of a free people 
under the sanction and patronage of the Executive of 
this < Great and Glorious Republic' " Plumb found 



i The events of this trip are recorded in letters written by Plumb 
to the Xenia News. The letter from which the foregoing was drawn 
was written from Lawrence, July 6th, and published July 25. His 
next letter was from Lecompton, and is also found in the issue of 
the 25th. 



32 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

that the Pro-Slavery people would not brook anything 
but the most abject submission, and that Governor 
Shannon had sold himself to them body and soul and 
taken to drink, as his life had been in danger from both 
sides from his first appearance in the Territory. 
Sheriff Jones admitted that a majority of the actual 
settlers were in favor of Kansas becoming a Free State, 
but said it should be made a slave State "although the 
price of it be the dissolution of the Union." He read to 
Plumb letters from the South promising men and 
money in abundance for the subjugation of Kansas. 
And Plumb was indignant beyond expression at what 
he saw, and with hot blood he wrote a good description 
of the evils under which the Free-State people suffered. 
Here are his words : 

On every hand I see evidences of the devastation and ruin 
which had" visited this beautiful country and rendered families 
houseless and hearthstones desolate under the cover of "Law* 
and in a vile and infamous attempt to fasten upon the settlers 
of Kansas a blighting institution which lives upon the degrada- 
tion and slavery of the white laborer and the degeneration of 
our white race. The " half has not been told " of the suffering 
and ruin that has taken place here. The Border-Ruffian cut- 
throats boast of outrages which, for the sake of humanity, I could 
wish were not true, but which are oftentimes worse than they 
represent them to be. And the Government, which should pro- 
tect citizens in the exercise of their rights, pays for the com- 
mission of these outrages out of the National Treasury! If a 
Pro-Slavery man wishes to commit a depredation, he goes to 
Jones, who is also Deputy U. S. Marshal, and gets a commission 
as a Deputy, summons his posse from among the horde of South- 
ern cut-throats who are always around, and proceeds to the com- 
mission of his outrages against Free-State settlers; and as 
they are under the orders from a U. S. Deputy Marshal, of course 
the (Jovernment has to pay for it. 

The Slaveocraey have determined to tax the people of the 
Territory t<» pay the expenses of this bogus Legislation, and pay 
such mm as Jones, Shannon, Donalson, Lecompte, Atchison and 
SI ringfellow for oppressing them. But the people will not suffer 
taxation for that purpose. They will die first! A short time 
before the election last fall this omnipresent Jones went out into 



FIEST IN KANSAS 33 

the Territory and demanded of each settler the sum of one dollar 
for the privilege of voting! Not a man would pay him. The 
matter was then dropped until both elections had been held, 
when another attempt was made to collect it, which also failed; 
and so will all attempts to collect any tax ordered by the present 
Government. 

Although there is no killing going on at present, the stealing 
has by no means ceased. Almost any night horses and cattle are 
stolen from Free-State men; and I have it on unquestionable 
authority that Clark, an Indian agent in the Territory, and one 
of the murderers of Barber, is now paying an expert thief ten 
dollars a head for horses and mules stolen and delivered at the 
Indian Mission. These things have been represented to the 
Government, but no note is ever taken of any outrages committed 
on Free-State men. And such being the case, the time for 
making reprisals has come, and for every man killed on the 
Free-State side two will die on the other; and for every horse 
stolen from the Free-State men, the slaveryites will suffer in 
like proportion. And let Governor Shannon himself beware! 
I have conversed with the settlers of Kansas at the plow and at 
the hearthstone, and have shared their homely fare, and although 
men of peace, they know their rights, and knowing, will main- 
tain them. And if Shannon will get drunk and insult defense- 
less women he will not live to repeat the cowardly act. Many of 
the settlers from the North look upon themselves as deserted by 
their brethren, and having forborne until forbearance has ceased 
to be a virtue, are only anxious to die as becomes men, with 
their faces to their foes and arms in their hands. 

Plumb visited the Free-State prisoners, introducing 
himself as from Ohio, " which was a sure passport to 
their good-will." They were then guarded by Captain 
Sackett and his men, and were more humanely treated 
than they had formerly been. The health of the camp 
was good, and the prisoners were hopeful of better times. 
He talked with Governor Robinson about Kansas and 
her people, her troubles and her hopes. On the 10th 
of July Plumb left Lecompton to go to Topeka, which 
town, as well as others, he doubtless visited, but his let- 
ters describing them have not been preserved. He was 
fascinated with the Territory and said: 

Kansas is beautiful, beautiful beyond description! The 



34 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

breezes that sweep over her fair and fertile plains are health- 
giving and redolent with the perfume of thousands of sweet- 
scented flowers. 

On his return to Ohio Plumb had a personal experi- 
ence with the Border-Ruffians. He went down the Mis- 
souri, the blockade of which was then complete against 
Free-State people. Every boat was infested with a Ruf- 
fian patrol, and at Lexington he stood in grave danger 
from that going down with him. Indeed, he might 
have lost his life but for the interference of Colonel 
Philip D. Elkins, an Ohio man, living then at Westport 
and himself a Border-Ruffian. He protected the young 
editor and kept him company to St. Louis. 2 



2 This is written from the statements of the late Senator Stephen 
B. Elkins. 



CHAPTER VII 

BLEEDING KANSAS 

" Bleeding Kansas " was tlie war-cry of 185G. It 
stirred the land like a blast from the trump of battle, 
which it was. Violence developed in the first attempt 
to establish a Territorial Government. The invasion 
of Kansas by armed bands of Missourians had resulted 
in the election of a Legislature composed largely of non- 
residents — citizens of Missouri. This foreign body 
came to be known as the " Bogus Legislature." It 
enacted statutes for the government of Kansas and at- 
tempted to fasten the institution of slavery firmly on the 
Territory, fixing penalties of unusual severity for the 
infraction of any of its slavery decrees. 

The Anti-Slavery people found it impossible to ac- 
quiesce in such a system. They found that it had been 
designed for their expulsion and for the eradication 
of the principles they held on the subject of slavery. 
Under this code they could, if they chose to remain in 
Kansas, do one of two things — repudiate these prin- 
ciples or stand in opposition to the laws. There was no 
middle ground. The first of these expedients was not 
to be thought of, and resistance of the usurpation of 
their rights was the only alternative left them. The 
condition thus imposed upon them meant a conflict, and 
because of the persecutions under which they suffered 
they determined " to resist to the bloody issue " the 
entire enactment of " Bogus " laws. 

This decision was, by the Pro-Slavery partisans, 
deemed a challenge, and the position of the Free-State 

35 



3C THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

men was counted treasonable. The result was the Wa- 
karnsa War, precipitated by the militant Missourians. 
This war was compromised, and the issue was postponed 
— not settled. Each side was then committed to a 
course of action, and both foresaw a bitter struggle. 
The country took sides and fell into two political sec- 
tions, each of which was appealed to for aid by its 
partisans in Kansas. Plumb met and was moved by 
the advocate of freedom, and, having been from the in- 
ception of the Nebraska question an intense champion 
of the anti-slavery cause, went to Kansas as we have 
seen. 

The appeal of the South had not been in vain, and 
its cause had developed in Kansas. The power of the 
Territorial government had been wrested from the of- 
ficials appointed for its administration, and was exer- 
cised and directed almost wholly by public sentiment in 
the slave States as interpreted and promulgated by 
aliens in Kansas. These came early in 1856. They 
were followers of Buford and were from almost every 
Southern State. They prowled in armed bands from 
forts and posts about most of the settlements. They 
lived principally by theft, and with them murder be- 
came a business. They followed, with improved 
methods, the course of their predecessors, the martial 
Missourians, who had overrun the Territory at every 
election and voted with arms in their hands. 

The Free-State men had set up a State government 
and adopted the Topeka Constitution, which they de- 
manded should be recognized by Congress, and a friendly 
House gave it much encouragement. While Topeka was 
the legal seat of this opposition government, Lawrence 
was the fortress of the Free-State movement, the home 
of its leaders, and foremost in defiance of the barbarous 
measures of the "Bogus Legislature." Against Law- 
rence raged the Wakarusa War, the principal quarters 
of the invading Missourians having been at Franklin, 



BLEEDING KANSAS 37 

four miles away. This war, suspended in December, 

1855, was resumed in the spring of 1856. The bands 
of Buford were reinforced by predatory Missourians 
who crossed the border at the solicitation of the Ter- 
ritorial officials. The Douse Committee to investigate 
the Kansas troubles was then taking testimony in the 
Territory. The nature of the evidence given and 
the manner of procedure followed by the Committee 
angered the crusaders for slavery. The attempt to ar- 
rest Eeeder, the deposed Governor, now gone over to 
the Free-State side, and his defiance of the Ruffians 
added fuel to flames already burning high. On May 
21, 1S5G, the slavery forces sacked Lawrence by direc- 
tion of the Territorial courts, whose judges had decreed 
the destruction and abatement of the Free-State hotel 
and newspapers. John Brown, on the road to aid Law- 
rence, turned back after its destruction and slew five 
Ruffians on the Pottawatomie. The battle of Black- 
jack soon followed, and John Brown captured the Pro- 
Slavery forces, but was compelled by the United States 
troops to release them. Osawatomie was pillaged by 
Whitfield, who was the Territorial Delegate to Congress 
by grace of Missouri votes. Then began a guerrilla war- 
fare which Plumb found in progress on his first trip to 
Kansas. Though it was burning low at the time, he 
was not deceived, writing to his paper that it was the 
calm before the storm. Later developments proved the 
accuracy of his forecast, and he returned to Ohio to seek 
and bring to Kansas such material aid as he could 
secure. 

The National Republican convention met June 17, 

1856, at Philadelphia, and nominated Fremont for 
President. The platform was mainly Kansas, and the 
inhibition of slavery and polygamy the issues. James 
n. Lane, the foremost political leader in Kansas, en- 
tered actively into the canvass for Fremont. He spoke 
in many of the Northern States, and his theme was 



38 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

Kansas. He made a deep impression by his impas- 
sioned descriptions of the wrongs under which the Free- 
State people lay. Many people of the North set out to 
find homes in this troubled land. The closing of the 
Missouri River to this emigration turned the tide 
through Iowa and Nebraska, and Chicago became the 
outfitting point. By the middle of July some six hun- 
dred Kansas colonists were gathered in Iowa. 

There have been few more adroit political managers 
than Lane. The master-stroke of the Fremont cam- 
paign was planned and executed by him. It was the 
heralding of the entrance into Kansas of the six hundred 
colonists as an invasion by the Army of the North under 
his command; and with rare skill he contrived to have 
this done by Pro-Slavery press and people. Coupled 
with it there was to be a sharp decisive campaign 
against the Border-Ruffian forts and camps surrounding 
Lawrence. He counted that the effect on the country 
would be marked, that the interest excited w T ould be in- 
tense, that feeling in the North would be wrought to a 
high pitch, and that the election of Fremont would fol- 
low as a result. That Buchanan probably was elected 
by frauds in his interest in Pennsylvania is ample proof 
of the wisdom of Lane's policy. The details of his cam- 
paign in Kansas are set out below. 

On the 5th of August the Free-State men routed the 
Georgians camped near Osawatomie. They fled to Fort 
Saunders, on Washington Creek, in Douglas County, 
which, with this reinforcement, became a formidable 
post, and the Free-State settlers around it were driven 
out and their houses burned. 

Lane placed himself at the head of the emigrant 
column in Iowa. Many of the colonists had set out for 
Kansas as the result of his eloquence. About three 
hundred of them were armed, and these hailed his ap- 
pearance as their leader with cheers and were formed 
into a sort of military organization. They marked their 



BLEEDING KANSAS 30 

route with heaps of stones (afterwards known as Lane's 
chimneys) for the guidance of others known to be com- 
ing that way. This new route into Kansas became 
widely known as the Lane Trail, and along its course 
forts were established at Plymouth and Lexington, in 
Brown County, and Hoi ton, Jackson County. The 
Kansas line was crossed on the 7th of August. 

The advance of this pioneer column, as Lane had 
judged, was regarded with increasing apprehension and 
alarm by Pro-Slavery interests and people. This Army 
of the North was the ominous storm-cloud, the in- 
carnation of abolitionism, threatening the fortunes of 
slavery. Imperfect knowledge of its character, its real 
purpose, and its equipment furnished an inexhaustible 
source of conjecture and speculation. Improbable 
stories of the nature and design of this militant migra- 
tion were spread broadcast. Every member of it was 
supposed to be a volunteer soldier armed with a Sharps' 
rifle and bent on the uprooting of the institution of 
slavery in Kansas. 

At the Nebraska line Lane and John Brown left the 
Army of the North to hurry to the field. Captain 
Samuel Walker, with thirty men, had gone from Law- 
rence to meet the emigrants. The intelligence borne 
by Walker determined Lane to reach Lawrence, one 
hundred and fifty miles away, at the earliest possible 
moment. He rode the entire distance without halt, all 
his comrades falling behind, and entered Lawrence at 
three A.M., on the 11th, having been thirty hours in the 
saddle. Once in the field, he struck with boldness and 
vigor. On the evening of the 12th Captain Joseph 
Cracklin, by Lane's direction, assembled his company 
of eighty-one men and marched to Franklin, four miles 
from Lawrence. On the way, Lane, who had kept his 
presence secret, made known to the men that he was 
in the field again and at their head. The men greeted 
him heartily and the march was continued with en- 



40 THE LIFE OF PEESTON B. PLUMB 

thusiasm and confidence. At Franklin there were some 
fifty Border-Ruffians quartered in the house of one 
Crane, postmaster and a justice of the peace under the 
" Bogus " Laws. Crane's dwelling was a sort of block- 
house, and was defended by a cannon. Being well 
armed and deeply solicitous for several barrels of 
whisky, the Ruffians stubbornly defended the place, and 
held it until a wagon loaded with hay and set on fire 
was pushed against their stronghold, when they at- 
tempted to escape. Some of them were captured, and 
the cannon and whisky fell into the hands of the victors, 
the former taken along for use in the campaign and the 
latter poured into the streets. 

From Franklin Lane moved against Fort Saunders. 
On the morning of the 14th a company of the Army of 
the North under Captain Shombre and known as the 
Chicago company joined Lane; it having arrived at 
Topeka the day before and being ordered immediately 
to the front. The body of Major Hoyt, murdered two 
or three days before, was found on the morning of the 
15th. This discovery enraged the men, and they de- 
manded to be led against the fort at once. At two 
o'clock the assault was made. The garrison fired one 
round and then escaped from the fort by a wooded 
ravine, and the Free-State men entered a deserted post, 
where they found much stolen property and forty good 
muskets. The following day the house of Colonel H. T. 
Titus, called Fort Titus, fortified and held by about 
thirty men, was attacked by Lane and bombarded with 
the cannon captured at Franklin, which was charged 
witli balls made from melted type of the Herald of 
Freedom. The fort was taken after Titus and others 
had been wounded. The next day Governor Shannon 
appeared at Lawrence in the interest of the Pro-Slavery 
party and negotiated a truce and exchange of prisoners. 

These victories of the Free-State forces caused great 
excitement in Kansas and the Pro-Slavery party issued 



BLEEDING KANSAS 41 

an announcement which ended with — "Lane's men 
have arrived ! — Civil War has begun ! " 

The rising storm created consternation in the slavery 
ranks throughout the land. Along the border feeling 
arose to a high pitch, and indignation changed to bit- 
terness and a grim determination to prosecute the war 
to a successful issue. Governor Shannon resigned, and 
Daniel Woodson, Territorial Secretary, became Acting- 
Governor. Woodson was an active Pro-Slavery man. 
On August 26, a manifesto was issued calling the 
slavery hosts to war, ending with this bloody injunc- 
tion : " Let the watchword be ' extermination total and 
complete.' " In response the Border-Ruffians assembled 
under Atchison, String-fellow, Reid, Doniphan, and 
others, to the number of three thousand. They invaded 
Kansas, burned Osawatomie, beleaguered Lawrence, and 
were prevented from executing their design of exter- 
mination by the arrival of the newly-appointed. Gov- 
ernor, John W. Geary. The nation was aflame, and 
" Bleeding Kansas " was the cry which all but swept 
the Republican party into power in its first national 
campaign. Lane's management of the Kansas crusade 
j produced spectacular results and brought him a national 
reputation for political acumen which ended only with 
his life. 

In the Xenia News of August 29 there is a review 
of Kansas events which shows that Plumb was watch- 
ing with keen interest the current of affairs in the Ter- 
ritory. He believed the hour had come when Freedom 
demanded the united efforts of the North — that hour 
which he was sure would strike and for which he only 
waited. " For Northern men to rush speedily to the 
aid of their brethren in Kansas/' he writes, " is the 
only remedy now left for the evils that afflict that Ter- 
ritory. We are sorry to say it. We hoped we never 
would have to say it — but it is said. We say again to 
all young men, who can go to Kansas, ' get up and go at 



42 THE LIFE OP PKESTON B. TLUMB 

once.' Let jour watchword be ' To arms ! To the 
rescue ! ' ere it be forever too late." 

In the same issue of the paper is the following an- 
nouncement : " Messrs. P. B. Plumb, of this office, B. W. 
Leigh McClung and P. B. Walker, left Xenia on yes- 
terday morning for Kansas Territory. They have gone 
to serve their country by serving the cause of justice 
as the exigencies of the present crisis may demand. We 
wish them success and hope thousands of others in the 
free States will follow your example. Were two thou- 
sand such young men in Kansas to-day, the contemplated 
invasion of that Territory would never take place, and 
if it did, a speedy exit of the invaders would follow." 



CHArTER VIII 

SECOND TRIP TO KANSAS 

For the purpose of visiting his parents, Plumb re- 
turned to Xenia by way of Marysville. The children, 
coming home from school, found him in conversation 
with his mother. He gave a good account of the coun- 
try, and his father then decided to move to Kansas, 
starting soon to look for a suitable location. David 
Plumb was at Lawrence in September when the town 
was threatened by the Border-Ruffians, but was saved 
by the United States troops under the direction of Gov- 
ernor Geary. At that time David Plumb saw John 
Brown at the fortifications along Massachusetts Street 
and was ready to do his part for the town's defense. 
On his way out of Kansas he was arrested and taken 
from the stage at the crossing of Stranger Creek, and 
marched to Leavenworth, where he was released. 

Plumb had returned to Xenia to close up his affairs 
during " the calm before the storm " in Kansas. The 
storm broke, however, before he had sold out his busi- 
ness, and he again hurried away. He had some knowl- 
edge of the means relied on by the Free-State men in 
the coming conflict, and he went to Chicago and of- 
fered his services to the National Kansas Committee, 
then the great directing head of the Kansas emigration 
from the North. By the committee he was sent on to 
Iowa City, then the western terminal of railroad ex- 
tension, with letters to Dr. Bowen, the resident agent 
there, arriving about the first of September. At Iowa 
City Plumb formed a company which he led into Kansas 
as a guard for the cargo he carried. Captain Alfred 

43 



44 TILE LIFE OF PKESTON B. PLUMB 

C. Pierce, now of Junction City, was his first recruit 
at Iowa City. B. W. Leigh McCltmg and P. B. Walker 
had come with him from Xenia. The other members 
of the company were William Eldridge, Samuel F. Tap- 

panj Curtis, Pellett, Smith, Johns, 

and a drill-master whose name has not been preserved. 
O. A. Curtis, father of Senator Charles Curtis, joined 
the company at Winterset, Iowa, and three or four 
others were added before the arrival in Kansas. Plumb 
was the Captain of this company, which was called 
"the Grizzlies," and which was governed by military 
regulations. It was drilled every day, for each man ex- 
pected to have to fight the Border-Ruffians when he 
reached Kansas. 

The necessity for a company of escort arose from the 
nature of the lading which Plumb was to carry on the 
journey. Through Dr. Bowen he had secured three 
wagons and a team of horses for each wagon. In 
these wagons, as they arrived by rail, were packed 
two hundred and fifty Sharps' rifles, two hundred 
and fifty Colt's revolvers, two hundred and fifty 
Bowie-knives, twenty thousand rounds of ammunition 
for the rifles and revolvers, one brass twelve-pounder 
cannon and its carriage, and some supplies for use on 
the way. This warlike cargo had been sent to Dr. 
Bowen by New England friends of Kansas. Many 
partisans of the South were to be found in Iowa City, 
and they were alert and watchful. When the cannon 
arrived they made a sneaking raid on Plumb's camp and 
attempted to steal both the cannon and the horses. This 
made caution necessary, and about four o'clock on the 
3d of September Plumb left the town, drove ten miles 
out and camped. Later in the evening Dr. Bowen and 
James M. Wine-hell, afterwards a resident of Osage 
County and President of the Wyandotte Constitutional 
convention, rode to the camp to see the company depart 
for Kansas. They found the men assembled and ready 



SECOND TRIP TO KANSAS 45 

to plunge into the night on their journey, and Dr. Bowen 
made these young crusaders a speech, and closed by 
saying, " If the Border-Ruffians succeed in taking your 
lives, may the noble cause in which you die give you a 
passport to a better world." 

Plumb had never made a speech, but now his en- 
thusiasm was running high. He had been assigned an 
important and responsible mission — one on which even 
the freedom of Kansas might-depend. He felt that some 
response was required of him. He believed that which 
was burning within him would be sufficient if he could 
but get it fairly expressed. In the falling shades of 
night he stood apart from his fellows and spoke out 
vehemently and gesticulated awkwardly, shaking his 
head and even his shoulders in earnest emphasis. He 
found no lack of words — more rose from the fullness 
of his heart than he could utter — and he closed with 
these : " I have seen Kansas. I know the perils of her 
liberty-loving people. I have seen the Border-Ruffians 
and the desolation of their work. I need no introduc- 
tion to them. I accept the responsibility of this great 
trust you have to-day confided in me; and these muni- 
tions of defense, if we live, shall be delivered to those 
for whom they were intended." Plumb was not yet 
nineteen. All things considered, there is nothing in the 
annals of Kansas which surpasses this enterprise and 
this speech. 

The route of the company was through Sigourney, 
Oskaloosa, Knoxville, Indianola, Winterset, Quincy and 
Tabor, to Nebraska City, and the country through 
which it lay w r as but sparsely inhabited, that from 
Nebraska City to Topeka showing more settlers. At 
the crossing of Skunk River a drowning man was res- 
cued by Pierce, and at Sigourney some cheese was 
purchased which proved poisonous; and it required all 
the skill of the local physician to save some of the com- 
pany from death. The company kept to the road early 



46 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

and late, and only those who drove teams rode on the 
wagons. Plumb was dressed usually only in trousers 
and shirt, and he wore high-heeled boots. He and 
Pierce walked together much of the time, going gen- 
erally ahead of the teams. At Winterset some opposi- 
tion from Southern sympathizers was encountered. 
Plumb talked incessantly of the Fremont campaign, 
which he believed would terminate in success. Tappan 
had a copy of Whitter's poems, and the whole company 
often joined in the soul-stirring "Kansas Emigrant's 
Song." 

We cross the prairies as of old 
The pilgrims crossed the sea. 

Plumb was not able to carry the tune, but he made a 
great deal of noise in his efforts to do his part of the 
singing. O. A. Curtis would harangue the company 
on Kansas and freedom at every opportunity. At 
Tabor a dinner was given in honor of the company, 
which rested there a day in the enjoyment of the hos- 
pitality of the freedom-loving settlers, many of whom 
were from Ohio. The march had been a forced one 
to that point in the interest of the " treason prisoners " 
at Lecompton, but there news of their release was re- 
ceived.. All through Iowa settlers fleeing from Kansas 
were met, but this did not affect the enthusiasm of the 
company. 

The Missouri River was crossed at Nebraska City. 
There Lane and thirty of his men were found, just in 
from an engagement with the Border-Ruffians at 
Hickory Point and getting out of Kansas in obedience 
to the proclamation of Governor Geary. He made a 
speech, the eloquence and tact of which was praised by 
Thomas W. Iligginson, who was present, and the report 
(if which greatly impressed Ralph Waldo Emerson. It 
inspirited Plumb and his company, and they set forward 



SECOND TRIP TO KANSAS 47 

on their way with hearty zeal, though they knew they 
were entering on the dangerous stage of their expedition. 
From this point they found other companies on the 
trail, some of tliem large, but Plumb kept his men apart 
and to themselves. At Brownsville the party of James 
Redpath was overtaken. Albert D. Richardson and one 
of the sons of Old John Brown were with Redpath. 
Near Holton a hostile band was descried in the dis- 
tance, and the wagons were corralled and everything 
made ready to withstand an attack from Border-Ruf- 
fians, but it proved to be a roving band of Pawnee In- 
dians. Halfway from Holton to Topeka some of the 
company refused to go on to the camping-place which, 
had been selected by Plumb. They wished to camp 
back from the others. Plumb became suspicious of 
their designs and ordered them forward with the com- 
pany. They refused to obey. He was face to face with 
a mutiny. Pistols were drawn. Plumb prevailed, and 
the mutinous members sullenly marched on. 

The night before Plumb arrived at Topeka he and 
those of his company deemed most trustworthy took 
the cannon and its trappings into a tangled thicket, 
where they were carefully concealed. The remaining 
part of the cargo was evenly distributed to the three 
wagons and deeply covered with blankets, horse-forage, 
and camp equipage. This was done to hide the arms 
from sight of the United States troops, whom they ex- 
pected to encounter at Topeka. The examination of 
their wagons was not very thorough, and they were 
dismissed and told to proceed. The company arrived 
at Topeka on the morning of the 26th of September, 
having camped near Indianola, four miles away, since 
the night of the 24th. Plumb delivered the arms to 
those to whom they were consigned. Some of the 
pistols were delivered to James Redpath, as the fol- 
lowing receipt will show : 



48 THE LIFE OF PKESTON B. PLUMB 

Topeka, Kax., Sept. 27, 1856. 
Received from Captain Plumb, of the " Grizzlies/' seventy- 
six live-inch Colt revolvers for the four companies of Kansas 
emigrants under my command. 

Jas. Redpath. 

Before the company arrived at Topeka Tappan left 
it and disappeared, having heard that the troops would 
arrest him for his part in the Wakarusa War. Houses 
in Topeka were searched for him, but he was not found. 
December 14, 185G, he wrote a statement, now to be 
found in Volume I, Kansas Historical Collections, in 
which he claimed to have been the principal figure in 
this expedition. While it is inconsistent and does not 
agree with what he wrote later on the subject, it does 
preserve some valuable details. He says: 

I happened to be on my way to Kansas in the latter part of 
August. At St. Louis, I judged from reports that I could not 
go up the river. I went to Chicago. There I received an order 
for a cannon at Rock Island, which I took to Iowa City. At 
Davenport, I met Winchell, on the 2d day of September ; reached 
Iowa City same evening. On the 3d, our cannon arrived. On 
the 4th, Dr. Bowen bought one pair of gray horses for the 
cannon wagon. Besides these, he bought a large bay horse and 
a sorrel, and a covered wagon; also another covered wagon and 
a span, one black horse and a small bay mare. That day, the 
4th of September, the revolvers arrived from the East. On the 
5th we packed up — put provisions, cartridges and all in the 
wagons. Dr. Bowen also furnished one tent and two dozen 
blankets. On the evening of the 5th, "Winchell and Dr. Bowen 
rode out to our camp, ten miles from Iowa City. Winchell said 
he was going back to Iowa City and take the stage to Tabor, 
where he would meet us. Dr. Bowen gave me $50 to pay ex- 
penses of our party on the way. While we were at Iowa City, 
during the night, someone attempted to steal our horses, and 
also our cannon. They also broke open a storehouse and de- 
i roved forty Government muskets, thinking they belonged to 
us. At Knoxville I had $30 left. Our loads were heavy, and 
it, was raining, ^o I hired an extra team for three dollars per 
day, and we paid his expenses. We paid him $33. Higginson 
paid, at Nebraska City, $30 for us and $80 for Lane's party. 



SECOND TRIP TO KANSAS 49 

We met, all through Iowa, people fleeing from Kansas. At 
Nebraska City, we received a message from Eldridge to remain 
until he came up. Lane told us we could go in without any 
trouble. Higginson here took charge. We encamped two miles 
from town, opened our boxes, and gave each man a rifle, revol- 
ver, cartridges and knife, to use in the Territory, but not to 
carry out — that is, those who had none. Higginson paid me 
back the money I had expended for flour and meal, at White 
Cloud, out of my private purse. By this time we had been 
eaten out. 

At Plymouth, we gave Redpath some ninety odd revolvers; 
we had 200 in all, at starting. At Nebraska City, some persons 
joined us. Plumb gave out twenty-seven rifles; the balance, 
seventy-three, he handed over to the Central Committee, and 
ninety-two revolvers, and bowie-knives whose number I do not 
know; also, one-half keg of Sharps' rifle balls; cannon we buried 
at Topeka. Plumb's bill of blacksmithing, etc., was $20. 
We had fifteen men to feed every day, until we got to Tabor. 
At Topeka we sent a man back named Chubbs; a short man 
(four feet ten), light complexion, long visage, light eyes, light- 
brown hair, walked a little bow-legged, short bow-legs. Chubbs 
went with Sir. Trott, of Topeka, who had a wagon to get the 
rannon, which we had buried twelve miles south of Lexing- 
ton (?). Chubbs rode the black mare, bought in Iowa City. 
Chubbs ran away with that horse, disappearing towards Nebraska 
City. 

In a letter to the author, written January 16, 1901, 
Tappan says : " I left Washington, D. C, returning in 
Sept. '56, through Iowa with men and munitions of war." 
There is quite a difference here from what lie wrote in 
1856 — " I happened to be on my way to Kansas in the 
latter part of August. At St. Louis, I judged from re- 
ports that I could not go up the river. I went to Chi- 
cago." It will be observed that he has the cannon buried 
twelve miles south of Lexington and also at Topeka. In 
another letter to the author he says : " I had 300 Sharps' 
rifles, 300 Colt's revolvers, 300 Bowie knives, one cannon 
— 12 pounder, 20 kegs of powder, and 20,000 rounds of 
fixed cartridges for rifles and revolvers." In the face 
of this discrepancy in Tappan's figures those of Captain 



50 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

Pierce were given as more likely to be correct. Tappan 
seems to have claimed some, if not all, the responsibility 
of the expedition, but the receipt shows that Plumb was 
Captain and commander, as the company understood 
him to be and as he was in truth and fact. 



CHAPTER IX 

MARIPOSA 

Plumb was disappointed in not having an opportunity 
to do battle against the Border-Ruffians. He found a 
season of comparative quiet, but believed it would be of 
short duration. Not to be absent from the Territory 
when it should again require his help, he determined to 
establish a settlement at once and remain within easy 
call to arms. At Topeka he found a hearty welcome at 
the office of the Kansas Tribune, published by W. W. 
Ross, formerly of Ohio. He visited Lecompton and pos- 
sibly Lawrence and other towns, and sought informa- 
tion about different portions of the Territory. He 
purchased axes, saws, augers, and such other tools as 
pioneers might require in erecting houses in the wilder- 
ness. His entire company, except Tappan and O. A. 
Curtis, remained with him. He decided to ascend the 
Kansas River in search of a suitable location for his 
town. In Iowa he had purchased an ox-team, and this 
with two of the horse-teams, he took with him, the wag- 
ons loaded with implements and supplies. At Juniata, 
four miles above the mouth of the Blue River, he 
camped. From this point he sent Pierce, Johns, and 
Curtis to explore the valley of the Blue, assigning them 
one of the horse-teams. Before continuing his jour- 
ney he wrote to the Xenia Neivs. Some parts of his 
letter are necessarily given here: 

In Camp, near Juniata, K. T., 

Friday night, October 3rd, 1856. 

WESTWARD ! STILL WESTWARD ! 
" No pause nor rest, save where the streams 
That feed the Kansas run ! " 

51 



52 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

You may be surprised that your correspondent who wasn't 
exactly " raised in the woods " should be so suddenly struck with 
that fatal disease commonly known as the "Western Fever." 
But it is even so, and the poet above quoted has not half ex- 
pressed the intensity of the fever which now possesses me. 

After numerous " hair-breadth escapes " and " adventures by 
flood and field " we arrived at Topeka, K. T., on Friday, Sept. 
26, " safe and sound." As you know, we found everything com- 
paratively quiet — no excitement, except in regard to the action 
of the Governor, of which, I suppose, your readers have been 
fully advised ere this, whose course has created considerable talk 
and" astonishment. Things look quiet now, but I am of the 
opinion that it is but the calm which precedes a storm of gTeat 
violence. Not wishing to be absent from the Territory in case 
troubles should again break out, I came to the conclusion to 
spend the winter here, and as I have determined, some time since, 
to make Kansas my home, I concluded the best plan would be 
to u take a claim" and build me a cabin. I can assure your 
numerous readers that such an operation, to me, contains fully as 
much of the real as of the romantic, and is what I consider quite 
an undertaking. I am not alone, however, as I am but one of a 
company of ten young men who are now seeking " elbow-room " 
for the" purpose of laying out a town, and selecting suitable 
claims for farming purposes. The business is new to all of us, 
and we have nothing but strong arms and willing hearts with 
which to carry through the enterprise; yet we have high hopes 
and expectations. Whether or not they will ever be realized, 
is for the future to unfold. I have become so captivated with 
outdoor life that it is quite doubtful if I ever shall live under 
any other canopy than that which it is the privilege of the 
meanest to enjoy. I feel the strengthening influence of an en- 
tire outdoor existence already, and each and every day lends 
a new charm to this rough mode of living. 

I shall Ijc off in the morning on a buffalo hunt, to be gone 
until our exploring committee return. I have seen some por- 
tions of Nebraska and Iowa, and I admire both very much, but 
Kansas far surpasses either. The soil is richer, the water better, 
the timber equally as good, and Kansas abounds in mineral 
wealth. The future Kansas, if consecrated to Freedom, will be 
glorious. It will soon realize the poet's description of the future 
of the West: 

" Broad on either hand 
The golden wheat-fields glimmered in the sun, 
And the tall maize the yellow tassels spun. 



MARIPOSA 53 

Smooth highways set with hedge-rows of living green, 
With steepled towns, through shaded vistas seen, 
The school-house murmur'ng with its hive-like swarm, 
The brook-bank whitening in the grist mill's storm, 
The painted farmhouse shining through the leaves 
Of fruited orchards bending at its eaves, 
"Where live again, around the Western hearth, 
The homely old-time virtues of the North ; 

Like varying strophes of the same sweet hymn 
From many of a prairie's swell and river's brim, 
A thousand church-spires sanctify the air 
Of the calm Sabbath with their sign of prayer." 

Let the laboring men of the North come to Kansas imme- 
diately and assist in making it a Free State, and the above de- 
scription will he more than realized, and they will, of course, 
reap corresponding benefits from its prosperity. 

Plumb did not await the return of his exploring 
party, but continued on his way up the Kansas River. 
At Fort Riley, Robert Wilson, post-sutler and Border- 
Ruffian, threatened to disarm him. Plumb defied him, 
and was permitted to go on his w r ay. Good bridges 
were found across all the streams, the Government hav- 
ing provided for their construction in 1S55. A mile 
from the present town of Salina Plumb laid out his 
town, which in honor of Fremont's California estate, he 
named Mariposa. The " call of the wild " allured the 
party and it was not without a struggle that a location 
was made. Writing from " Buffalo Region, K. T., Oct. 
20, 1S56," he said : 

The impetus which the novelty and excitement of our nomadic 
existence of the past few weeks had given us was so great that it 
was with reluctance that we yielded to the superior attractions 
and advantages of the country around us and concluded here to 
make a final halt. For the past two or three days previous to 
our arrival here we had been traveling over the broad and track- 
less prairies with the sun for our guide ; and as the distance be- 
tween the habitations of men and ourselves increased the stronger 
grew our desire to see more of that " Far West " so famed in 



54 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

"song and story"; and whose border we had just crossed, until 
at last we had begun to discuss the propriety of continuing our 
" tramp " to New Mexico or Utah ! But Kansas was our watch- 
word; and here in the most beautiful and fertile portion of the 
Territory we have " squatted " and here we intend remaining, 
having commenced the necessary preparations for the winter, in 
the shape of cabins, etc. Our nearest neighbors are the soldiers 
at Fort Riley, fifty miles distant. One attraction which has its 
influence in arresting our wandering steps, is the abundance of 
all kinds of game, such as buffalo, elk, antelope, turkeys, etc. It 
would most probably be amusing to the " typos " in the News 
office, who have witnessed my feats in the "art preservative of 
arts" to see how like a "master" I swing a four-and-a-half 
pound axe! I am second to but one out of a dozen of athletic 
fellows. I am not a " bad hand " in a herd of buffalo with a 
Sharps' rifle, but as Mac. (McClung) disputes the palm with me, 
I will only add that I am a " good shot." 

As winter approached it became evident to the colo- 
nists at Mariposa that a period of idleness was ap- 
proaching, something Plumb could not endure. He still 
owned his interest in the Xenia News, and as he had 
decided to make his home in Kansas he thought it well 
to return to Ohio, and dispose of his paper. For this 
purpose he left Mariposa, which he was never to see 
again. At Chapman Creek he met the exploring party 
under Pierce, now on the way to Mariposa. Pierce and 
his companions had made a fair exploration of the 
lower portion of the valley of the Blue. They found 
fine land, but they were beset by Border-Ruffians. They 
concluded that the first railroad through Kansas would 
run up the main branch of the river and be built in ten 
years, which it was, though the Civil War intervened. 
Plumb had a stock of fine buffalo meat, and he cooked a 
good dinner — buffalo meat, potatoes, rice, etc. He 
made a fine report of the resources and beauty of the 
country about Mariposa. It was agreed that he might 
go on to Ohio and try to induce people to come and, 
settle at their new town. When Pierce arrived there 
he began a survey of the townsite, which he made with 



MARIPOSA 55 

a lariat. A hewcd-log house eighteen by twenty -six feet 
was put up, and preparations to spend the winter in 
comfort perfected. 

In the issue of the Xenia News of December 12, 185G, 
is the announcement of Plumb that he had sold his 
interest in the paper to John T. Hogue, who afterwards 
wrote that he paid Plumb eighteen hundred dollars for 
it. " My own connection with the News has been both 
pleasant and profitable beyond my expectation," he said, 
u and I dissolve it with many regrets. And I shall 
carry with me to my new home in the Far West the 
liveliest feelings of gratitude to those kind friends who 
gave to me, an entire stranger, the encouragement which 
resulted in the establishment of the News" 

In the same issue is a paragraph to the effect that 
Plumb had gone again to Kansas and taken James 
Ilainil, Robert Hunter and John Hunter with him, and 
continues, " His energy, ambition, and enterprise will 
doubtless secure him a good degree of success anywhere. 
He does not, by any means, belong to that class of young 
men who are apt to fail." 

Plumb returned to Kansas immediately. He stopped 
at Lawrence and was employed by G. W. Brown to be 
foreman in the office of the Herald of Freedom, recently 
revived after its destruction by the Border-Ruffians 
when Lawrence was sacked. A printer, afterwards 
famous in his profession, was then a compositor on the 
paper, and often recounted Plumb's first appearance in 
the office. On the evening previous he saw a very 
tall, slender young man in a bookstore ordering a vol- 
ume which was not carried in stock. He was possessed 
of those striking mannerisms which became noted in 
Kansas at a later day. He stood very erect and fre- 
quently tossed up his head, which he appeared to incline 
to the right in the act, as though looking at an upper 
corner of the room. He had a haughty bearing which 
disappeared when he had been a few minutes in conver- 



56 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

sation, and bore all the characteristics of a man of 
ability and strong personality. The next day the pro- 
prietor of the paper brought in the new foreman and 
introduced him to the office force, and the printer recog- 
nized in him the young man he had seen in the book- 
store. 

This probably was late in December. January 3, 
1S57, there is in the paper an enthusiastic article on 
Mariposa : 

I will not upset your preconceived notions of beauty in Nature 
by a minute description of this 

"... Green land stretching to the evening star 
Fair views skirted by primeval trees, 

And flowers hummed over by desert bees." 

Nor will I excite your speculative propensities by raising 
visions of " Smoky Hill " Railroad stock, selling at fabulous per 
cent, above par; all of which, however, will be realized in time. 
My friend, Jack Lantern, Journeyman Cordwainer, No. 14 Corn- 
hill, Mariposa, K. T., who is supposed to be in spiritual com- 
munication with future railroad presidents, has confided to me, 
under the injunctions of strictest secrecy, that the snort of the 
" Iron Monster," as he bestrides a great tri-rail track of enormous 
width, opening with thunder and pomp our country to the wealth 
of the Indies and "Marts of far Cathy," will be heard in the 
valley of the Smoky Hill, and that an enormous depot for his 
especial accommodation, will be speedily erected at the aforesaid 
Mariposa, where, although numberless " corner lots " have gone 
off " like hot cakes," there are, in the language of the auctioneer, 
" a few more of the same sort left." 

Not only did Plumb conduct the mechanical depart- 
ment of the Herald of Freedom, but he found time to 
write numerous letters to the Xenia News on conditions 
in Kansas, the first of these bearing the date of January 
12, 1857. He was a frequent attendant on the Legisla- 
ture then in session in Lecompton. " The Legislature is 
a very rough-looking assemblage, and is peculiarly notice- 
able for the amount of liquor consumed by it," he wrote 
on January 10. Of the town he said, " The drunken- 



MARIPOSA 57 

ness and immorality for which it is characteristic make 
it an object of loathing to all decent men. Whisky 
reigns supreme." On the 17th he wrote, " Yesterday 
Dr. Stringfellow, and several others were arrested for 
horse-stealing, and admitted to bail to answer the 
charge. G. W. Clarke, the murderer of Barber, was 
also arrested, on a charge of murder, and also admitted 
to bail." Plumb was even then in favor of prohibiting 
the sale of liquor in Kansas, and on February 3d wrote 
an account of the destruction of all liquor in Lawrence 
by the ladies of that town, saying, " This is the second 
time the noble ladies of this place have resorted to this 
summary method of ridding themselves of the influence 
and presence of the l destroyer.' Here, as elsewhere, 
the women are found first and foremost in all good 
works. All honor to the brave women of Kansas." In 
this letter he describes the town of Mariposa in glowing 
terms, calling attention to six different squares reserved 
for churches, four for schools, and large plats for pub- 
lic parks. 

Although absent from his town Plumb was the recog- 
nized head of the enterprise. Pierce went to Lawrence 
to see him about the first of January, and remembers 
how his hopes were renewed by talking to Plumb and 
reading his boosting article in the Herald of Freedom. 
He returned to Mariposa, taking John Hunter with him 
and carrying an old Yager musket which Plumb had 
given him. 

But to the Ohio boys the valley of the Smoky Hill 
bore a bleak aspect that winter. McClung set out for 
Lawrence late in January, and Pierce went down with 
him. They fell in with Chief Shingwassa's band of 
mixed Kaws and Pottawatomies returning with seven- 
teen scalps, and McClung was offered the Chiefs daugh- 
ter for wife if he would join the Kaw tribe, which he 
might have done but for the unfortunate circumstance 
of a poor supper in the wigwam. The others drifted 



58 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

away, and Pluinb then bought an interest in the Em- 
poria Town Company and turned his face towards the 
valley of the Neosho. 1 

In the Mariposa enterprise Plumb had not labored 
wholly in vain though it swallowed up most of his 
means. It is said he had to borrow money to buy 
a small interest in the Emporia Town Company. 
But at Mariposa he had felt the fascination of the true 
pioneer for the wilderness. Contact with Mother Earth 
gave him capacity and human sympathy. He had seen 
boundless opportunity in the endless plains of Kansas. 
Plumb became the first distinct and typical Kansan, 
and the first inspiration which made him so, he got in 
his pioneer experience in the Valley of the Smoky Hill. 



i Plumb made two trips from Ohio to Kansas and returned to 
Kansas in the last half of 1856. 



CHArTER X 

EMPORIA TOWN COMPANY 

The course of the " Bogus " Legislature, in its session 
of 1857, was closely followed by Plumb in his letters to 
the Xenia Neics, that of February 26th noting its de- 
mise : 

It closed its labors by a grand spree, on Friday night last, 
about two o'clock. They passed an act to punish rebellion 
against the Territory of Kansas, and defining the same. Eebel- 
'lion, forsooth! As if the people who form the government 
have not a right to remove it when it becomes a nuisance and 
peases to carry out the object for which it was established ! The 
crime of rebellion is not known in popular governments where 
;the power rests with the people directly. It is only in despotic 
governments, where tyrants are always seeking to strengthen and 
perpetuate their tyranny. So in Kansas. The Governor signed 
•this bill, and of course will have to enforce it. They had better 
be making extensive preparations for hanging and imprisoning 
the rebels ! The punishment is death or imprisonment for 
twenty years ! 

Notwithstanding these repressive measures in the in- 
terest of slavery in Kansas, emigrants from the North 
began to arrive early in 1857. They came in such num- 
bers that never again did the Border-Ruffians make 
general war in the Territory. In the letter noticed 
above Plumb continues: 

The first boat-load of emigrants landed at Leavenworth a few 
days since. Among them was Mr. John Hammond, of Yellow- 
Springs, Ohio, who will make Kansas his home. There were 
about three hundred emigrants on board. Of this number, about 

two hundred have passed through Lawrence, on their wav into 

59 



GO THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

the Neosho country, which is decidedly the best of Kansas now 
open, and in reach from this place. New towns have been laid 
out all along tin Cottonwood and Neosho, which are in a thriv- 
ing condition. One was located in the fork of the Neosho and 
Cottonwood a few days since, and before twenty-four hours had 
elapsed $2500 worth of shares had been disposed of, and a new 
issue made at higher rates. The secret of this is Yankee enter 
prise, in establishing steam mills, a printing press, etc., imme- 
diately on the ground. 

This new town " in the fork of the Neosho and Cot 
tonwood' 3 was Emporia. The company for its estab 
lishment was formed in Lawrence bv G. W. Brown of 
the Herald of Freedom, G. W. Deitzler, Lyman Allen, 
and Columbus Hornsby. Richard J. Hinton was to 
have been a member, but could not raise the money with 
which to pay for his interest. Brown informed Plumb. 
who was still his foreman, of Hinton's failure to pay in 
his portion of the money, and offered the share to 
Plumb. The mere ownership of an interest in a town- 
Bite did not appeal to Plumb, but if he could have part 
in the actual building of the town and be a factor in the 
growth of the community and the country round about 
and participate in the ever-increasing business bound 
to follow, then he would take the Hinton interest, which 
he did. It was arranged that he should establish a 
newspaper a1 the new town as soon as the material 
could be brought in, and Plumb decided to make Em- 
poria his future home. Lie went at once to Cincinnati 
and purchased from the Western Type Foundry there 
the complete equipment for his printing office, securing 
paymenl for some pari of the bill by executing mort- 
gages on various lots in the new town. It was 
necessary, also, to provide a working force for the office, 
and for this purpose he went on to Xenia, where he in- 
due, -d his old foreman, Jacob Btotler, and other young 
men, to go to Emporia. 

This was in March, and Plumb was so anxious 
to get his paper under way early in the year that 



EMPORIA TOWN COMPANY 61 

lie went back to Cincinnati and accompanied his 
material on the boat to St. Louis. There he hoped 
to get it on board a boat which he knew was to depart 
for Kansas on a certain day, and when he arrived he 
saw lying above him the Kansas boat preparing to get 
under way. He hastily loaded his newspaper equip- 
ment on drays and sent it up to the wharf of the Kan- 
sas steamer. Then he went in haste to a paper store 
and purchased a stock of material for his new office. 
With this consignment of the things he was to buy in 
St. Louis he hurried to the river. The boat was getting 
into mid-stream when he was seen coming down the 
levee at the head of a procession of rattling carts and 
frantically hailing the receding craft, which, after a 
time, swung to and came back to the landing. On 
board, to his surprise and satisfaction, he found his 
father and all his family on the way to Kansas to settle 
at Mariposa. W T hile his supplies were being put on 
board he told his father of the change in his plans — 
told him of the valley of the Neosho and Emporia and 
how to get there. Plumb himself did not come up on 
that boat. 

At Kansas City David Plumb remained several days 
to buy oxen to take his family to Emporia in a wagon 
he had made in Ohio and brought with him. Once on 
the Santa Fe trail and fully under way the prairies ap- 
peared. Away on the horizon a house glittered in the 
fitful sun of April. It remained in sight most of the 
day, dissolving into a tiny shack when reached, and be- 
ing the only building on the Olathe townsite. Frey P. 
McGee had a house of entertainment at One Hundred 
and Ten Mile Creek, six or eight miles from Burlin- 
game, but finding that David Plumb was from Ohio and 
an anti-slavery man, declined to receive him for the 
night, though it was cold, and the son, Josephus, was 
very ill. The utmost that could be done was to get the 
sick boy into the negro quarters for the night. David 



G2 THE LIFE OF PBESTON B. PLUMB 

Plumb was eight days on the road from Kansas City 
to Emporia, arriving there on the 8th of April at 
sundown. He found men unloading some Cottonwood 
lumber, of which three settlers built a house the next 
day, and he moved into it on the evening of the 9th. 
It was the first house on the townsite and he moved out 
of it as soon as he had found a claim. 



CHAPTER XI 

EMPORIA 

Emporia is twenty miles south of the old Santa Fe 
Trail, the ancient highway from the Missouri to Mexico. 
It is six miles from the junction of the rivers which 
flow on either side, and it was beyond the fringes of tim- 
ber then growing along their banks. There was not so 
much as a shrub on the townsite, which was covered 
with a coarse sedgy grass known as " blue stem " or 
" prairie grass," with a sod so thick and tough as to be 
frequently used in building the walls of dwellings. The 
trails of the Osages and Sacs and Foxes crossed at that 
point, and the title to a portion of the town land was 
perfected by laying upon it a Wyandotte Indian 
" float," a species of land warrant peculiar to Kansas. 1 

Only those men who have seen it can realize the deso- 
lation of a Western prairie lying dead in the grip of 
winter. The endless and undulating waste is thickly 

i In the treaty concluded with the Wyandot tribe of Indians at 
Upper Sandusky March 17, 1842, the Government, as an inducement 
to the Indians to make the treaty, agreed to grant by patent in fee- 
simple to Isaiah Walker and thirty-four other Wyandots 640 acres 
of land each, " out of any lands west of the Missouri River set apart 
for Indian use, not already claimed or occupied by any person or 
tribe." The Wyandots moved to Kansas in 1S44, but none of the 
persons entitled to do so took up any of these tracts for some years. 
When Kansas Territory was established it was impossible to secure 
absolute title to much of the land, as the surveys were incomplete. 
Tben the Wyandots owning them began to sell these patents, for as 
they could be located on any public land they gave absolute title at 
once. As they could be laid on any portion of the public domain 
they were called " floating claims " or " floats." That used to secure 
title to the townsite of Emporia was obtained from Isaiah Walker. 

63 



G4 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

covered with red-brown grass, withered and lifeless. 
This melancholy prospect is gashed with channels of 
vagabond streams wandering to all quarters and along 
which grow fringes of deciduous timber. The inter- 
laced tops of the trees, leafless and bare, stand a blue- 
black silhouette sharply out against leaden or opaline 
skies, and often in violent agitation from the action of 
ceaseless winds. But when winter is dead and the 
swaying winds have sunk to gentle breezes; when the 
snows have vanished and the rains have fallen; when 
the song birds have returned, and the waterfowl come 
over the moors and wake the solitude of the streams — 
then is revealed a transformation incapable of realiza- 
tion by those who have never beheld it. The pale-green 
grass becomes a living carpet gorgeously painted with 
t he flame of innumerable wild flowers. The trees put on 
a dress of striking color to adorn and define the land- 
scape. The sky softens to silver and amethyst, and the 
salubrious air quickens like wine. 

It was the season of such transformation in the year 
1857, that the building of Emporia began. Canvas- 
covered wagons carrying families began to arrive while 
the snow still lay in the ravines and on the north ex- 
posures. Sawmills were set up in the broadest reaches 
of timber, and small rough houses began to appear on 
the townsite, while rude cabins of logs rose about the 
skirts of the woods. The Town Company erected a ho- 
tel, and those who proposed to engage in mercantile 
pursuits put up buildings for stores. 

Early in May Plumb began to assemble at Emporia 
the various parts of his newspaper equipment. The 
strenuous life of 1S56 had told against his health, which 
was now precarious. lie had suffered from recurring 
hemorrhages of the lungs during the winter, but his will 
was iron, and he was in a constant glow of contagious 
enthusiasm. ITis press had not beon brought out from 
the Missouri River, a matter which gave him some 



EMPORIA 65 

concern, for the spring had been wet and the trails were 
heavy. Stotler had been working in the office of the 
Herald of Freedom since his arrival in Kansas, and 
Plumb now assigned him the task of getting the press 
to Emporia. James EL Holmes, one of John Brown's 
ardent followers, had given up service under the grim 
old Puritan and had taken a claim at one of the cross- 
ings of the Neosho, which came to be known as Holmes's 
Ford. He had become possessed of a stout wagon and 
five yoke of oxen. He was sent, together with David 
Plumb, then living on his claim near the town, with 
his wagon and three yoke of oxen, to Old Wyandotte, 
at the mouth of the Kansas River, to bring out the press 
and other heavy appliances for the printing office. The 
teams had to be doubled at every creek and heavy grade, 
and they were on the road three weeks, arriving at Em- 
poria about the first of June. 

On the 6th of June the first number of the Kanzas 
News was issued at Emporia. It was a six-column 
folio modeled after the Xenia News, from which it got 
its name. It was ably written, well printed and of good 
appearance. The leading article was in advocacy of free 
homesteads of one hundred acres to be given actual set- 
tlers on the public domain, and said, " we are at war 
with slavery because that institution crushes labor and 
degrades industry. Therefore, we are in favor, as the 
basis of all true progress, of placing every man and 
woman in a position of industrial independence." 
Three years later Stotler, then proprietor of the paper, 
wrote an account of how the first number was published. 

There were just three houses in Emporia at that time — the 
hotel, the store, and a small building temporarily used by Mr. 
Storrs for a store and dwelling: size 14x16 feet. The type for 
the first number were " set up " in one of the chamber-rooms of 
the hotel, while the sheets were "worked off" in what is now 
the parlor. Piles of newspaper bundles did service respectively 
as " Editor's table/' " Bank," and " Stone " stand. The editor 



G6 TIIE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

(Plumb) was "press-man," and occasionally he went to the 
" case " to set up an editorial. The issue of the second number, 
it was announced, " would be delayed two weeks in order to 
give a chance to fix up matters in the office." But the editor was 
taken sick with the smallpox just before the second number was 
ready to be issued, which delayed it several days longer. 

At that time no post-office had been established at 
Emporia. It was a Free-State town, and the Pro- 
Slavery authorities were not disposed to aid it in any 
way, so the first issue of the paper was sent to Lawrence 
to be mailed, as were following issues for some time. 
Mail for Emporia was directed to " Box 500 " at Law- 
rence and was carried down by any traveler or emigrant 
who might be going that way. A post-office was 
established at the Columbia townsite, a mile and a half 
away, but the mail for Emporia was deposited by the 
carrier in a hollow tree at Holmes's Ford. These condi- 
tions made it difficult for Plumb to get his exchanges 
promptly. 

The Kanzas News was at once recognized as a vigor- 
ous advocate of the Free-State cause. In fact, it be- 
came the leading paper of the Free-State party in the 
Territory and was the last to consent to the abandon- 
ment of the old name when the Republican party was 
organized. " The Neivs was surprisingly well edited," 
wrote Stotler. " It took rank at once with the best in 
the Territory, and never occupied a doubtful position 
on any question. Plumb seemed to know everything 
at twenty, and what surprised his friends was where he 
learned so much." 

The whole community looked to Plumb as the leader, 
though he was not twenty until the October following 
the founding of his second successful newspaper in 
June. The advice of no other man in Kansas was ever 
so much sought by neighbors and friends. He directed 
everything. No enterprise was undertaken until he had 
been consulted. He pointed out vacant claims, aided 



EMPORIA 67 

settlers to get located, helped to build bouses, and looked 
after the comfort of everybody. At Lawrence he bad 
lived in the home of Mr. N. S. Storrs, who moved to Em- 
poria and was living in the third house on the townsite 
when the first number of the News was printed. It bad 
rained the day he arrived and the night was cold. He 
could get no rooms at the hotel and took his family to 
this small house to sleep. Plumb came in about ten 
o'clock and heard of it. He went to the house, and 
knocking on the door, said, " Is that you, Storrs? Is 
Mrs. Storrs in there?" "Yes," said Storrs, "we are 
all in here." " Have you any bedding? " asked Plumb. 
" Very little," replied Storrs, " only a double shawl for 
Mrs. Storrs and the baby." " Here, give her my blan- 
ket," said Plumb — and he departed and slept without 
one. 

It was at this time that Plumb contracted the small- 
pox. Burlingame was the halfway station between 
Emporia and Lawrence. Plumb had to go to Lawrence 
frequently, and he often made the trip on foot. Return- 
ing from that town about the middle of June, he stopped 
at Burlingame for supper. Smallpox had made its ap- 
pearance in the settlement, and Plumb heard that a 
Mr. Wright, from Ohio, had been stricken with the dis- 
ease and taken to a lonely cabin far out on the prairie 
and quarantined there. Plumb condemned this actiou 
as cruel and resolved to help the sufferer. He secured 
blankets and had a basket filled with such delicacies 
as he could get at the hotel, and these he carried to the 
cabin, which, as it was at night, he reached by aid of a 
lantern. He found the man extremely ill and remained 
with him through the night. The next day he went 
about the settlement in search of better quarters for 
his patient and found a man and wife who had both had 
smallpox. These he induced to receive the sick man 
into their home, himself paying them the excessive com- 
pensation always demanded for such services. He 



68 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

could get no one to help him, and it was with difficulty 
that he could obtain a wagon to carry the man to his 
new quarters, but he did at length get one and moved 
the man himself. The man recovered. Plumb went on 
to Emporia and was soon down with the disease. He 
had taken the precaution to have those exposed to it at 
Emporia vaccinated. A cabin north of the town was 
prepared for him and he was taken there, and McClung, 
his companion through Iowa and at Mariposa, attended 
him through his illness, the deep pits of which marked 
his face for life. McClung was then a young physician 
and he went through the Civil War as Surgeon in an 
Ohio regiment and later became eminent in his profes- 
sion at Xenia. 

Emporia made substantial progress in 1857. The 
winter came on cold. There were no plastered dwell- 
ings, and carpets were tacked on the walls to keep out 
the winter wind. 

Early in the spring settlers began to arrive, and many 
came that summer and fall. In one family there were 
two daughters, perhaps the first young women at Em- 
poria. One of them, still living there, loves to talk of 
those pioneer days. "The people were mostly young 
and hopeful," she has said, " and the country looked so 
bright and promising that it seemed all we had to do 
was to break the prairies and bring forth anything we 
wished. And that was the case, for we broke the prai- 
rie and brought forth a civilization and made a land of 
bounteous plenty." She recalls the expedients which 
the young people devised for their entertainment. Her 
father lived one winter in a house adjoining that iu 
which Plumb and his friends had their room. She 
sometimes heard them discussing the most satisfactory 
manner of adjusting their limited stock of garments to 
the social requirements of the time. One might say to 
Stotler, "Jake, you will have to work to-night; can't 
I wear your vest? " Or this to McClung, " Mac, you are 



EMPORIA 09 

not able to get out to-night; can't I wear your coat? 
It is better than mine." " But," she adds, " none of 
them ever asked to wear Plumb's coat, for he rarely took 
it off." He wore a suit of gray until he wore it out 
completely. Judge Bailey, afterwards Plumb's law- 
partner and Justice of the Supreme Court, wore a suit 
of blue from the time he came from New England until 
his election to the Supreme Court. Reflecting on those 
days she says, " We had better times than people have 
now. We had left the past behind us, and we had the fu- 
ture to make. We enjoyed the present. We could live in 
a one-room cabin and have a good time and enjoy life." 
Every new house was dedicated with a dance. All the 
young people were expected to be present. Plumb was 
not a graceful dancer, but he danced with all his might 
— with head, hands and feet, and enjoyed himself, as 
all did. After the dance Judge Bailey was always sent 
home with the girl who lived farthest out in the coun- 
try, seeming never to notice that he was imposed on for 
the sake of the joke. Once Plumb had just returned 
from Lawrence, probably on foot, and was asleep in a 
chair by the stove in his office. A lodge of Good Tem- 
plars was being organized in the next building and 
smoke drifted into the room. The cause was sought, 
and the roof of Plumb's printing-office was found to be 
on fire. A bucket of water w T as poured down the stove- 
pipe, completely drenching him. He was very angry 
and used some emphatic expressions, supposing it a prac- 
tical joke, of which there were many in the early days 
of Emporia. One of the self-constituted firemen re- 
monstrated with him — " Why, man, your office was 
burning up, and we were putting out the fire!" 
" Well," said Plumb, somewhat mollified, " can't a man 
have a little bonfire of his own without being wet down 
with cold w T ater? " 

The ague was the plague of the pioneers. It seemed 
to rise with miasmatic exudations from the virgin soil 



70 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

newly broken. It was a protracted malady, rarely 
fatal, and was notorious for the converse modes of its 
tortures, the victim shivering and quaking from a frosty 
temperature to-day and perhaps suffering from a 
scorching fever on the morrow. The skin became yel- 
low and the countenance drawn. It sapped the strength 
and vigor of the settlers, and some of them became dif- 
fident and despondent. Most of them, however, fought 
it off and finally wore it out, jesting about it even while 
racked and shaken by it. 

The people were not long without the enjoyment of 
Christian privileges. The pioneer preacher was Rev. 
G. C. Morse, famed as one of the devoted " Andover 
Band." 2 He cast his lot with this outpost of civiliza- 
tion and did his full share in making it an outpost of 
Zion. He took a claim and roughed it like his frontier 
neighbors. The ague did not spare him, and often wmile 
suffering from it he held church services wherever he 
could assemble the people. He cut logs on his own 
claim for the church he intended to build and set so 
good an example in toil and patience under difficulties 
that his influence spread into all the Territory. He 
lived to see a great church rise in the city of his adop- 
tion, due largely to his sacrifices, though it is doubtful 
if he ever took to himself any great credit for his labors 
and his privations. A surviving pioneer whose family 
first knew him at Emporia made this mention of one of 
his early Sunday services: 

We went to church to-day. Mr. Morse, if he is able to get 
about at all, always goes to town on Sunday, and if he can get 
a few people together and find a place to gather them in, there 

2 The Kansas Andover Band was composed of Richard Cordley, 
S. D. Storrs, G. C. Morse, and R. D. Parker. It was formed at 
Andover Theological Seminary in the summer of 1S.">(5 to make Kansas 
the field of labor for its members. The Kansas troubles inspired 
these young men then entering the ministry, and they became a power 
for good in Kansas. See Pioneer Days in Kansas, by Richard Cord- 
ley, for a Cull account of their labors. 



EMPORIA 71 

is preaching. We stopped in front of the hotel, thinking they 
might be having services in the hotel parlor. Billy went in and 
soon returned with a tall, slender man. His hair was rather 
long, and he had a jerky way of throwing his head, as if trying 
to keep a particularly long lock out of his eyes. Indeed, all his 
movements seemed to be abrupt and full of energy. He was 
dressed in a suit of light gray cloth, with a felt hat of the same 
color — all looked as if they had had a good bit of wear. They 
must have been of good stuff, for I do not remember his wear- 
ing any other suit in those early days. Billy introduced him as 
Preston B. Plumb. He said, " Certainly, we are going to have 
church, but come in, and Billy and I will hustle around and 
locate the church." After some time he returned and said their 
meeting would be in a little unfinished dwelling, which was sided 
up and had a roof and floor, but no doors or window-glass. In 
going out wo passed through the hotel office, which was full of 
men that I am sure were not there when we went in. Mr. Plumb 
introduced them. Some of them were from Xenia, Ohio, and we 
claimed them for neighbors. We seemed to be objects of par- 
ticular attention, and afterward learned that there were twenty- 
five young men in Emporia, and only two young ladies. The 
whole crowd started for church, Mr. Plumb leading the way, 
telling us of this beautiful valley, the fertility of the soil, of 
Emporia's future possibilities and probabilities, emphasizing all 
he said with quick, decisive manner. Boards had been laid on 
some trestles for seats. We found Mr. and Mrs. Morse and two 
women there, and those who came with us formed the congrega- 
tion. Mr. Morse preached a good sermon, although he looked as 
if he had just conquered a chill and was keeping the fever in 
subjection until he got home. His grit and perseverance were 
always a marvel to me. Mr. Plumb and his companions gave us 
some fine singing. For many years they contributed this part 
of the church service cheerfully. 

Mr. and Mrs. Morse rode home with us. He told us they 
would soon have a church-home in Emporia — that he had com- 
menced felling trees to be used in its building, and had been 
handicapped by this abominable ague, but that he would soon 
get the better of that. 

How this church home was finally obtained has been 
told by Mrs. Morse, as follows: 

Dr. Morse organized the Congregational Church at Emporia 
in 1858. The first building of this church was erected in 18G0. 



72 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

I met Senator Plumb very soon after we arrived in Emporia, 
and the first thing I noticed was the way he went about any busi- 
ness transaction. He was the inspiration of the town. He was 
struggling to get a start, was publishing the paper of the town 
and seeking to °'et a railroad headed towards it. He was the 
head and front of every enterprise to benefit and build up the 
town and that part of Kansas, then the extreme frontier. When 
the subscriptions to build the church were asked he put down 
his name for ten dollars — the largest subscription obtained, the 
next largest being five dollars. The building cost about seven 
hundred dollars. Some people stipulated that their subscrip- 
tions should be paid by furnishing oxen to haul logs, lumber, 
or stone, and some paid in logs and lumber; and some paid by 
furnishing chains for hauling the logs to mill to be sawed. When 
the second building was erected Senator Plumb subscribed seven 
hundred dollars, but paid about one thousand dollars. He 
always contributed liberally to the support of the church and 
was quite a regular attendant at the services, though he really 
leaned to the Methodist Church. 

Pioneer life gives strength. In America it has ab- 
sorbed the attention of the greatest minds and developed 
our greatest men — Washington, Jefferson, Benton, 
Clay and Lincoln. Emporia was a stake in the occu- 
pation of our domain. The details of its growth were 
small things, but their fostering was fraught with por- 
tent and begot in those who worked them out the 
capability requisite for dealing with the greater prob- 
lems of our national life. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION 

The Lecornpton Constitution was the last stand of 
the slave power in Kansas. The cause had been des- 
perate, and the Pro-Slavery leaders in Kansas believed 
it already lost. The Lecornpton Constitution was not 
an expression of the sentiment of even the Pro-Slavery 
party in Kansas. It was of foreign origin. All its 
details were planned in Washington. The secrecy, mys- 
tery, and intrigue used to forward it were mainly new 
weapons in the hands of the Kansas representatives of 
the slavery interests. They were familiar with bluster, 
open force, noisy and murderous invasions by Border- 
Ruffians on election davs, and fraud, the last of which 
was finally resorted to by the leaders of the Lecornpton 
movement upon the failure of the imported methods. 

This constitution had its inception in the Bogus Leg- 
islature. When, however, the time for carrying it into 
effect had arrived the National House of Representatives 
was not subservient to slavery demands, which made 
it necessary to rely on Territorial authority for the in- 
itiative and consummation of this last effort to make 
Kansas a slave state. The Second Territorial Legis- 
lature met January 12, 1857, and on the 19th of Feb- 
ruary passed a bill for a Constitutional Convention at 
Lecornpton. The provisions of the bill were purposely 
ambiguous, and Geary, the newly-appointed Governor, 
vetoed it for the reason that no provision was made to 
submit the contemplated constitution to a vote of the 
people, but the veto was overridden. Geary fled the 

73 



74 TFLE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

Territory to save his life, and Robert J. Walker was ap- 
pointed in his stead. Walker was a man of ability and 
reputation, and a practical politician. Kansas was a 
fine field for the exercise of his powers, but the wily 
Governor overreached himself and was repudiated by 
the Buchanan administration. He had rendered the 
Free-State cause some good service, but whether from 
good-will or to defy the Pro-Slavery party, then con- 
demning his actions, there is some question. As a part 
of the Lecompton scheme he proposed that the Free- 
State men should take part in the Territorial elections, 
and the " voting question " was uppermost in Free- 
State councils most of the year 1857. It involved a 
change in the policy of the Anti-Slavery forces and pro- 
duced diversity of opinion, as well as some discord and 
excitement. 

In July the Free-State party met in convention at 
Topeka to discuss the question. No decision was 
reached, but another convention was called to meet at 
Grasshopper Falls in August, to take definite action. 
Lane was appointed to organize the people to protect the 
ballot-boxes at the approaching elections and tender the 
services of the force to Governor Walker for that pur- 
pose. In this work Lane divided the Territory into mil- 
itary districts and made necessary appointments of as- 
sistants, one of which was conferred on Plumb, and is 
here given: 

Headquarters Kansas Volunteers 

For the Protection of the Ballot-Box, 
Lawrence, July 20, 1857. 
Whereas, the people of Kansas, in convention at Topeka, July 
15, 1857, did adopt the following resolutions: 

Resolved, That General James H. Lane be appointed by this 
convention, and authorized to organize the people in the several 
districts, to protect the hallot boxes at the approaching elections 
in Kansas 

Now, Therefore, in pursuance of the authority thus vested in 
me by the people of Kansas, I do hereby constitute and appoint 



THE LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION 75 

P. B. Plumb, Superintendent of Enrollment, Fourth Brigade, 
Second Division. [Included Emporia. J 

This appointment is conferred upon said P. B. Plumb by vir- 
tue of confidence entertained by me in his patriotism and in- 
tegrity, well knowing that in his hands every duty appertaining 
to the aforesaid position will be faithfully discharged. 

Given at the office of the Adjutant General. 

J. II. Lane, 



M. F. Conway, 

Adjutant General. 1 



Organizing. 



While the Kansas Noes contains no reference to the 
attendance of Plumb at the convention at Grasshopper 
Falls, now Valley Falls, in Jefferson County, it is known 
that he was there and had a prominent part in its de- 
liberations. 

As J. S. Stewart, one of the first settlers of Allen 
County, and a delegate to the convention, neared Prai- 
rie City someone on a wiry pony galloped down the Old 
Santa Fe Trail and met him. It was Plumb, also on 
his wav to the convention. 2 



i The Divisions of the State and announcement of officers were sent 
out in General Order No. 2, widely published in the Free-State papers 
of the time. Printed copies were also made, a few of which are pre- 
served in the library of the State Historical Society. There is a 
photographic copy of this commission of appointment in the library of 
Mrs. P. B. Plumb. It was printed in the Hiawatha World aud Topeka 
Commoniccalth, but on what dates has not been ascertained. 
2 Statement of Stewart, Juue 28, 1910. He said : 
I was mounted on a good horse, but I had some trouble to keep 
pace with my chance acquaintance, who soon demonstrated that he 
was a hard rider. He seemed an overgrown boy, very tall and slim, 
but with an air about him that showed him a person of force and 
push. He soon said he was Preston B. Plumb, of Emporia, and that 
he was on his way as a delegate to the convention to be held at Grass- 
hopper Falls the following day. We forded the Kansas River. 
Plumb was enthusiastic over Kansas and had no doubt that it would 
be a free state but did not minimize the struggle it would take yet to 
make it free. I think Plumb addressed the meeting more than once 
but as I was on some of the Committees and not present all the time, 
cannot say, and I do not remember to have heard him. I think 
Plumb was on a committee of twenty-five of which I was chairman. 



76 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

It was decided that the Free-State party, relying on 
the assurance given by Governor Walker, should par- 
ticipate in the election of a delegate to Congress and of 
a Territorial Legislature in October. Fear of Lane's 
forces kept the Border-Ruffians out of the Territory ex- 
cept at a few points on the line of Missouri, where a 
large number of fraudulent votes were cast. For re- 
jecting the returns from these points and declaring the 
election of the Free-State candidates for the Legisla- 
ture, and later calling this Legislature into special ses- 
sion, both Walker and his Secretary, Stanton, were re- 
moved from office by President Buchanan. The Free- 
State party had won the Legislature; and the special 
session in December 1857, ordered that the Lecompton 
constitution be submitted to a vote of the people, some- 
thing never contemplated by those back of that instru- 
ment, and it was almost unanimously rejected. For- 
gery was resorted to by the Lecompton adherents, the 
leaders of whom left the Territory through fear of vio- 
lence, and the scene of conflict was changed to Wash- 
ington, where much money and patronage were used to 
force the discredited constitution through Congress. 
But it failed. 

In all this Lecompton struggle Plumb bore an active 
and effective part. Every issue of his paper contained 
strong articles and able editorials against the attempt 
to enslave the future State. His article on " Revolu- 
tion " has not been surpassed by any writer on Kansas 
Territorial times. He was one of the last to consent 
to the voting policy, 3 believing it an abandonment of 



3 The Free-State men, having a government of their own, did not 
vote at the elections held under the Bogus Laws. They held their 
own elections. Governor Walker wished to destroy the government 
of the Free-State men, and proposed that they vote in the Territorial 
elections, promising that the elections should be fair. The movement 
In the Free-State party to accept the invitation of Governor Walker 
to participate in the election hold under the Territorial laws was 
called the " voting policy." It was finally adopted. Governor Walker 



THE LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION 77 

the Topeka Constitution, but he accepted the decision 
of the Free-State party and did all in his power to make 
the new policy a success. 



kept his promise, rejecting the fraudulent votes cast, and giving the 
Territorial Legislature to the Free-State men. That was the be- 
ginning of the end of Pro-Slavery rule in Kausus. 



6 



CHxiPTER XIII 

THE LEAVENWORTH CONSTITUTION 

The Leavenworth Constitution was the counter move- 
ment of the Free-State people against the Lecompton 
Constitution. It was devised, framed and sent to Con- 
gress while the Lecompton Constitution was being 
pressed by the Pro-Slavery interests at Washington and 
in Kansas. The Topeka Constitution had held the Free- 
State forces together until the emigration of 1857 had 
enabled them to participate in the Territorial election, 
where they won the Territorial Legislature. That the 
Lecompton Constitution might be submitted to a vote 
of the people, Acting-Governor Stanton convened the 
Legislature in special session December 7, 1857. The 
session was very brief, but the regular session began at 
Lecompton January 4, 1858. The loss of the Terri- 
torial Legislature by the Pro-Slavery forces had put 
them at a disadvantage, and the only means now left 
them for making Kansas a slave state was the Lecomp- 
ton Constitution. They knew it could be forced on the 
people only by fraud and violence, to both of which 
they were ready to resort. Some of the leaders of the 
Free-State party, anxious to begin the realization of 
the benefits to come with the material development of 
the Territory, which they believed would immediately 
follow its admission, were not strong in their opposi- 
tion to the Lecompton movement, They insisted that 
the evils of this slave constitution, now that the Free- 
Si ate party had control of the legislative power and an 
increasing majority at the polls, could be overcome by 

78 



THE LEAVENWORTH CONSTITUTION 79 

the State Government which they believed themselves 
strong enough to organize. This, of course, was a sor- 
did view of the matter and an utter repudiation of what 
the Free-State men had contended for with arms in 
hand. To oppose more effectively the Lecompton Con- 
stitution and counteract whatever disaffection might 
exist in their ranks, the Free-State men who were moved 
alone by patriotism forced a direct opposition issue in 
the movement for the Leavenworth Constitution. And 
as Congress had not provided an enabling act for the 
Lecompton Constitution, of which it was taking favor- 
able notice, the Free-State men believed they might law- 
fully proceed without special Congressional direction. 

For authorizing the special session of the Legislature 
Acting-Governor Stanton had been removed, and James 
W. Denver, Commissioner of Indian affairs, who 
chanced to be then in the Territory, w r as appointed to 
his place. The active opposition of Denver, to the 
movement for the Leavenworth Constitution succeeded 
in casting doubt on the legality of the Legislative act 
authorizing the convention. 1 But notwithstanding the 
antagonism of the Acting-Governor, the movement was 
carried forward. The delegates were elected March 9, 
1858, about nine thousand votes having been cast. On 
the 23d of March they met at Minneola, a town in 
Franklin County, which the Legislature had made the 
Territorial capital over the veto of the Governor. It 
developed that many members of the Legislature were 
stockholders in the town company, and the matter came 
soon to be known as the " Minneola swindle." The 
Territorial officials refused to take their offices to the 
new capital, and by the time fixed for the meeting of 
the convention the scandal had become notorious. 



i See address delivered by Denver at the Old Settlers' Meeting, 
Bismarck Grove, Lawrence, September 3, 1884, reprinted in Vol. 3, 
Kansas Historical Collections, p. 359 et seq. Some of bis statements 
are much exaggerated. 



80 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

Many of the delegates wished to adjourn to some other 
place, but others, who had large interests in the new 
town, threatened to desert the Free-State party and 
break it up if such adjournment was taken. The mat- 
ter was debated all night. Lane, who had been elected 
president, took the floor in favor of adjournment and 
delivered one of the most dramatic and powerful 
speeches of his life. 2 The convention adjourned to 
Leavenworth, where it met on the 25th of March. 
Eighty-four members were in attendance. At Leaven- 
worth Lane resigned as president, and M. F. Conway 
was elected to that place. Samuel F. Tappan, a mem- 
ber of the company of " Grizzlies " and one of Plumb's 
companions through Iowa and Nebraska, was secretary. 
This convention was perhaps the most brilliant body 
which ever assembled in Kansas. Many of these dele- 
gates afterward attained distinguished honors. There 
was Lane, the sword and shield of the Free-State move- 
ment, later United States Senator, a Major-General, and 
one of the chief advisers of President Lincoln. Thomas 
Ewing, Jr., was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, 
Colonel of the Eleventh Kansas, a Brigadier-General, 
and Commander of the District of the Border; he was 



2 T. Dwight Thacher, a delegate, thus described this speech : 
The night was far spent. The candles had burned down in their 
sockets. The debate had been long, and at times angry. Some of the 
members were deeply interested in Minneola, and in their excitement 
they threatened that if the convention should adjourn from Minneola 
they would abandon the Free-State party and break it up. This 
tbreat aroused the sleeping lion in Lane. He came down from the 
chair, whore he had presided with great fairness during the debate, 
and took the floor. All eyes were upon him. The drowsy members 
sat upright As he proceeded with his speech the interest intensified, 
and members began to gather round him, sitting upon the desks and 
standing in the aisles. I shall never forget the scene — the dimly- 
liglited room; the darkness without; the excited men withiu ; little 
Warren, the Sergeant-at-Arms, standing unconscious upon the floor, 
with partly outstretched arms, and wholly carried away by the 
speech ; and Lane bimself aroused to a pitch of excitement which I 
never saw him manifest on any other occasion during his whole 
career. — See Kansas Historical Collections, Vol. 3, p. 13. 



THE LEAVENWORTH CONSTITUTION 81 

elected to Congress from Ohio, and was a lawyer in New 
York City. Robert B. Mitchell was a fine soldier, a 
Major-General, and Governor of New Mexico. J. M. 
Walden became a Bishop in the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. H. P. Johnson, a Colonel in the Union army, 
fell at the head of his troops at Morristown, Mo. Martin 
F. Conway was the first member of Congress from 
Kansas. Edward Lynde was Colonel of the Ninth 
Kansas. There were James M. Winchell, S. N. Wood, 
T. Dwight Thacher, William W T . Ross, James S. Emery, 
and many others who had fought in the Free-State 
ranks, and who were long foremost in the public affairs 
of Kansas. 

Plumb was a delegate from his county. This was his 
first experience in a deliberative body. He was just past 
twenty, but had the appearance and manner of one of 
mature life and intellect. He took a prominent part 
in the proceedings of the convention, his intense ear- 
nestness, his common-sense views, his devotion to the 
Free-State cause, all serving to secure him recognition 
and attention. He acquitted himself well. The favor- 
able impression he made was of much assistance to him 
later in life, and the friendships formed there continued 
long into the future. The attachment between him and 
Ewing resulted in mutual confidence and reciprocal 
favors for many years. His observation of the political 
methods of his associates gave him an insight into the 
manner of solving great political problems. 3 His service 



a The Leavenworth Constitution was the most able and perhaps the 
best constitution of the four formed for Kansas. The old Free-State 
or Topeka Constitution was the model after which it was written, 
but it was greatly superior in every way. All class distinctions were 
obliterated and the free negro was a competent elector. In fact, it 
was held by some that the right of unrestricted suffrage was con- 
ferred on women, the term " universal suffrage " being construed as 
giving the right, which, in all probability, it did. The western 
boundary of the state was fixed at the crest of the Rocky Mountains. 
The constitution was viciously assailed by the Pro-Slavery party. 
The struggle to avoid admission under the Lecompton Constitution 



S2 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

in this convention was one of the events of his life of 
which he always spoke with pride and satisfaction. 

engrossed the attention of the people, and while the Leavenworth 
Constitution was adopted, the vote was small, and it was buried in 
the archives of the United States Senate when presented to that body 
with a prayer that Kansas be admitted with it as the fundamental 
law. 



CHAPTER XIV 

TROUBLES IN SOUTHEASTERN KANSAS 

That part of the Territory on the Osage about the 
old Trading Post founded by Chouteau was early in- 
vaded by Border-Ruffians. Missourians voted there for 
members of the " Bogus Legislature." James Mont- 
gomery first appeared as champion of the Free-State 
people at that election. The issue there was the same 
as at Lawrence and Osawatomie — resistance of Free- 
State settlers to Border-Ruffian outrage and oppression. 
G. W. Clarke, one of the murderers of Barber, recruited 
a force in Missouri which marched from Fort Scott to 
aid in the destruction of Lawrence and other Free-State 
towns in the summer of 1856. This force was pursued 
by Montgomery with one hundred and twenty men. A 
battle was fought August 25 on Middle Creek, nine miles 
from Osawatomie, in which the Missourians, though 
they numbered one hundred and fifty, were defeated and 
dispersed, leaving two wounded men, their camp equi- 
page, and a cooked dinner on the field. 

Later in the year Clarke returned to that region at 
the head of four hundred Border-Ruffians, and expelled 
the Free-State men and placed Missourians on their 
lands. The unfortunate settlers were plundered of 
their personal property also. They returned in the 
summer of 1857 and endeavored, by peaceable means, to 
recover their property. While violence had somewhat 
subsided in the Territory, the Border-Ruffians holding 
these lands refused to surrender them to their rightful 
owners. They appealed for help to the Pro-Slavery 

83 



84 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

court at Fort Scott, where they preferred many criminal 
charges against the Free-State claimants, causing their 
arrest and imprisonment " at Fort Scott in cells unfit 
even for felons to inhabit," wrote General James H. 
Lane, who had been appointed by the Territorial Legis- 
lature to organize and command the militia. 1 Lane 
ordered Colonel J. B. Abbott, Dr. Gilpatrick, and Rev. 
J. E. Stewart to repair to the troubled district and es- 
tablish a squatter court for the settlement of the con- 
troversies which were at the bottom of the difficulties. 
The decisions of this court were not satisfactory to the 
Pro-Slavery men in possession of the lands of the Free- 
State settlers. When the court had disposed of the 
cases on the Little Osage, the militia under its direction 
and the settlers who had been restored to their rights 
were attacked by a posse commanded by the U. S. 
Marshal. The attack was successfully resisted and 
some of the posse killed. 

General Lane, in the meantime, was assembling and 
organizing the militia. On December 17, 1857, he had 
appointed Plumb to a position on his staff. 2 Learning 
that a force of Federal troops might be sent to the scene 
of these troubles, Lane sent " General Phillips and 
Plumb in advance" to bear this intelligence, and fol- 
lowed immediately with a considerable force under Gen- 
erals Stratton, Whitman, Shore, and Lenhart, arriving 
at Mound City after the attack of the posse on the 

i This appointment was December 1G, 1857, by the Legislature hav- 
ing a Free-State majority by the rejection of the fraudulent Oxford 
and McGhee returns. 

2 Only the notice of this appointment remains. In the library of 
Mrs. P. B. Plumb there is a photographic copy of this notice as 
follows : 

Ho. Quarters Kansas Militia, Dec. 17, 1857. 
Sir: 

You are hereby notified of your appointment as Aid Do camp to the 
Major Geul. under the act entitled an act for the Organization and 
Regulation of the Militia passed Dec. 16, 1857. 

J. II. Lane, Maj. Genl. 



TROUBLES IN SOUTHEASTERN KANSAS 85 

squatter court. His total force was about four hundred 
men. Camp was made about two miles west of the 
town. The settlers were enrolled under the Militia act 
and preparations made for a stand against the Ruffians, 
the officers of the courts at Fort Scott, and even the 
Federal soldiers. Scouting parties were sent out to in- 
form the people that all actual settlers would be pro- 
tected without reference to their political opinions. 
The expedition was kindly received by the people, who 
cheerfully submitted to its authority. 

When the pacification of the district had been af- 
fected and Lane was on the point of disbanding his 
forces, the scouts came in and reported that troops 
were marching on the camp to attack it. Lane disposed 
his men to receive them and to fight if he found it neces- 
sary, holding his position until assured that the troops 
had returned to Fort Scott. Having received written 
assurance from the Federal Judge at Fort Scott that 
the Free-State prisoners should have protection and 
fair treatment, Lane left two companies in the field to 
protect the inhabitants and disbanded the remainder of 
his forces, making his report on January 15, 1858. 

This winter campaign of a month in Southern Kansas 
was Plumb's first military experience. His activity and 
readiness for duty brought him favorable notice from 
the officers, and the acquaintance formed then with 
many men who afterwards became prominent in Kansas 
affairs and the Civil War ripened into friendship. 3 



3 This account is taken mainly from the report of General Lane, 
which is found in House Journal, pp. 84-5, 1858. It is the hest 
authority of this expedition which has been preserved, and is brief 
and general in its terms. 



CHAPTER XV 

THE BAR AND THE LEGISLATURE 

The intention to make the practice of law his profes- 
sion was not relinquished by Plumb through the turbu- 
lent times in which he was striving in the Free-State 
ranks for the freedom of Kansas. He and his friend 
McClung maintained an office in Emporia for the sale 
of lands and the preparation of such legal documents 
as had to be written there. But he looked forward to 
the time when he could command means and find op- 
portunity to enter on a thorough course of study of the 
law. This was known to his friends at Lawrence in the 
spring of 185G. 1 



i Of that period Hon. William Higglns, Secretary of State and 
long prominent in Kansas affairs and Grand Army matters in Kansas 
and Oklahoma, says : 

I met Preston B. Plumb at Lawrence when he was working on the 
Herald of Freedom before he started the Kanzas News. During my 
stay of four months there Plumb and I were much together. We both 
liked outdoor pleasures, strolling in the woods and over the hills and 
valleys. He was a jolly-hearted fellow, interesting, and a great advo- 
cate of freedom and against Kansas becoming a slave state. He was 
a great admirer of Kansas and its possibilities. His predictions of 
its future greatness were amusing. They seemed the inspiration of 
a dreamer or one gifted with supreme imagination ; and the results 
he predicted seemed impossible, but we both lived to see most of them 
<-oine true. In those days Plumb was without vices. He neither 
swore, drank, nor used tobacco in any form. He watched over and 
took care of the printers who were sporty, and when they were in 
need he shared his bed and bread with them, and for his attention and 
kindness they called him the Good Bishop. He loved to be with 
printers. He had no desire for society. He was a constant reader 
of papers and books of value, nis ambition was to be a lawyer, and 
that was the only ambition in (he way of professions that I ever heard 
him mention. But his great desire of those days, next to owning a 

8G 



THE BAR AND THE LEGISLATURE 87 

During the years immediately following the founding 
of Emporia Plumb led a strenuous life, as, indeed, he 
always did. It then required many times the energy 
and exertion to accomplish anything that it does to-day, 
for there were no railroads, no telegraph, and for some 
time no stages and no mails. The tough, wiry ponies 
of the West were the main reliance, and often Plumb 
could not get even one of these. Then he walked, for he 
permitted nothing to be neglected, ne made the trip 
to Lawrence and return on foot many times — seventy- 
five miles being the distance between the points. If, 
however, there was a pony to be had he w r ent on horse- 
back. 2 "I have," wrote Captain Heritage, "seen 

newspaper, was to own land in Kansas if it became a free state. He 
wished to become an orator, or, at least, a good speaker, and he talked 
much about the great orators. He was to be found at all public meet- 
ings, where he was a good listener. I heard him make his first speech 
in Kansas. It was at a Free-State meeting. Sam Walker was talk- 
ing when Plumb and I entered. He was telling of some outrage 
recently committed by the Border-Ruffians, and Flumb became rest- 
less and excited. He said he would like to talk. I urged him to do 
so, but he hesitated. All at once he jumped to his feet, and without 
displaying any weakness, he started in. He enlisted attention and 
seemed to have been inspired with ideas, and words to express them. 
His unpolished ways as a speaker, and his blunt way of presenting 
his forcible language brought out cheers. When he sat down he had 
made a hit and did not know it. He had fixed an impression on the 
citizens gathered there that he was a young man of force with an indi- 
viduality and intelligence which would aid to make Kansas a free 
state. 

2 F. P. MacLennan, proprietor of the TopcJca State Journal, gave the 
author the following on this subject: 

Jacob Stotler often told me that Plumb was supposed to be dying 
of consumption in the early days of Emporia. He would be seized 
with a paroxysm of coughing so severe that it was feared he would 
die as a result of it, and a severe hemorrhage of the lungs sometimes 
followed it. Plumb recovered quickly after the coughing fit was over. 
And nothing could dampen or impair his enthusiasm and optimism. 
Stotler was deeply concerned for Plumb's health in those days, and 
was always anxious when a fit of coughing seized him. His friends 
feared he could not stand the hardships of a soldier, but the war 
cured his consumption. 

Stotler said that when news was scarce at Emporia and times be- 
came dull Plumb would frequently startle his associates and com- 



88 THE LIFE OF PBESTON B. PLUMB 

Plumb start out horseback for Topeka or Lawrence or 
Kansas City when there was some little cloud in the 
sky as big as your hand about a railroad or something. 
I followed him once to Burlingame. The man who 
kept up with him had a hard task. He sat first on one 
side of the pony and then on the other and could ride 
farther in a day than any man I know of. He had so 
much steam in him ! " Once on his way to Lawrence 
Plumb said to Dr. Bailey, then living at Burlingame: 
" You might as well go along with me to Lawrence. It 
will be a fine ride; and we will be back to-morrow. I 
should like your company." Bailey said he would go, 
and brought out his pony. Before he could get into 
the saddle Plumb was mounted and thirty yards out on 
the road. " And/' said Bailey, " that is as near as I 
got to him on the ride to Lawrence. He was a hard 
rider. And it was the same on returning the next day. 
I trailed behind. We did not talk, for I was busy 
keeping in sight. But such was the way of Plumb. He 
did everything in such an intense way that I knew his 
action was entirely natural. He would not wait. He 
was not moody nor unsocial. And such was the per- 
sonality of the man that I enjoyed my trip, and I know 
he enjoyed my company." 3 

Plumb early made efforts to get a railroad into the 
Neosho Valley. He was one of the incorporators of the 



panions by announcing suddenly, and without any previous intima- 
tion, and regardless of the time of day, " I believe I will go to 
Lawrence and find out what is going on." To decide was to act. In 
ten minutes he would be on his way. If it was late in the afternoon 
he would go east ten or twelve miles to Duck Creek and stop over 
night with his friend, Oliver Phillips, then go on to Lawrence the 
next day. Sometimes he rode a slim, tough pony, and was a hard 
rider. Often the pony was not at hand, then Plumb would walk to 
Lawrence and back. 

s This was told the author by A. II. Turner, Esq., Chanute, Kansas, 
where Dr. Bailey lived long and where he died. Bailey and Plumb 
remained warm friends until death, and Plumb, when in that part of 
the state, always visited the Doctor. 



THE BAR AND THE LEGISLATURE 89 

Jefferson City & Neosho Valley Railroad, and was Sec- 
retary of the company, one of the first meetings of which 
was held at Lawrence, October 21, 1857. He spent 
mnch time and energy on this proposed road, but it was 
then too early to build railroads so far out on the Great 
Plains, and this one never was built. 

The Southern Branch of the Union Pacific Railroad 
was chartered about the close of the Civil War, and 
Plumb became interested in it. He was Secretary of 
the local company, and largely through his efforts a 
construction company was induced to build the road. 
It is now T a part of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas sys- 
tem, and runs from Junction City to Parsons, though it 
was originally intended that it should extend to Fort 
Gibson. 

The Republican party was formally organized in 
Kansas at a convention held at Osawatomie, May 28, 
1859. Horace Greeley was present and delivered an 
address. Plumb was in attendance, and an advocate 
of the step, and many of the measures he had long 
favored w r ere incorporated in the platform which was 
adopted. The account of the convention which ap- 
peared in his paper was evidently written and published 
before his return, but the facts were furnished by him. 
Concerning the platform it says : " While it is strictly 
and distinctively Republican in every feature, it is yet 
so broadly catholic and liberal that even professional 
fault-finders will be at their wits' end to find aught 
;against. Every plank is of solid oak, and the joiner 
work of the best description." 

The first general convention of the Republican party 
in Kansas was held at Topeka on the 12th of October, 
1859, to nominate State officers under the Wyandotte 
Constitution. 4 To this convention Plumb was a dele- 



* The constitution under which Kansas was admitted into the 
Union was formed by a convention convened at Wyandotte, now 



90 THE LIFE OF PBESTON B. PLUMB 

gate, and he and John A. Martin (afterwards Governor) 
were secretaries. Plumb had, by this time great in- 
fluence in the councils of his party, and here he did 
much for Thomas Ewing, Jr., his associate in the 
Leavenworth convention, who was a candidate for Chief 
Justice of the Supreme Court. At his instance, too, 
L. D. Bailey, his townsman, was a candidate for As- 
sociate Justice of the same tribunal. Both were nom- 
inated by acclamation. It is doubtful if any other man 
secured so much from this convention as Plumb. It 
was held on his birthday. He was twenty-two — but in 
trial, effort, hardship, achievement, he had passed 
through enough for a long life, and if he had never ac- 
complished anything more he would have had a name 
in the history of his adopted State. 

There is some reason to believe that Plumb attended 
a law school at Cleveland, Ohio, in the winter of 1858-9, 
but that he did so is not certainly known. In the 
winter of 1859-GO he was in Cleveland at a law school, 
— also in the winter of 1800-61. He completed the 
course early in 1861, returning to Emporia late in Feb- 
ruary. With him came H. G. Plantz, doubtless a fel- 
low-student at Cleveland, and the law firm of Plumb & 
Plantz was announced. 5 Plumb was admitted to the 
bar at Burlington, Kansas, immediately after his re- 
turn from Cleveland. His law practice was interrupted 
by war's alarms. On the 8th of September the town 
of Humboldt was sacked by guerrillas under command 
of one Matthews, who had been an Indian trader, and 
who had married an Osage woman and lived near where 
Oswego was later established. The people in the valley 
of the Neosho were alarmed, and Plumb enlisted nine- 



K.tnsas City, Kansas, in July, 1859, by act of the Territorial Legisla- 
ture It is tlif present constitution of the State. 

b Mention of the return of Plumb and the arrival of Tlantz is to 
be found in the Kansas A'ews, February 23, 18G1. The law card of 
the firm appears In the issue of March 2d. 



THE BAR AND THE LEGISLATURE 91 

teen young men at Emporia and rode rapidly to the 
pillaged town. Two companies were on the ground 
when he arrived. Colonel J. G. Blunt took command 
of the assembled force and pursued Matthews, coming 
up with him near the line of the Indian Territory. In 
the skirmish which ensued the guerrillas could not be 
forced to battle, but Matthews was killed and his force 
| dispersed. In this campaign Plumb first met Blunt, 
and this was the first experience of each of them in the 
Civil War. 

In November, 1861, Plumb was elected a member of 
the Legislature. But for this election he would have 
enlisted in the army in 1861. He was urged by the 
people to accept the place in the Legislature and secure 
them some much desired relief from the injustice of 
Territorial legislation, especially that relating to county 
boundary lines, and this he consented to do, though he 
had intended- to enlist in May. 6 

In the Legislature Plumb was one of the few mem- 
bers in every such body who transact its business. The 
most important matter demanding attention was the 
abuse of the treasury by certain State officials. Early 
in the session it developed that the provisions of the 
law had been violated in the sale of State bonds. At 
the instance of Martin Anderson, afterwards Major 
in the Eleventh Kansas, a committee was appointed to 
investigate the transactions of these officers of State, 

I and this committee, on the 13th of February, 1862, re- 
ported the following resolution: 
'Resolved, That Charles Robinson, Governor, John W. Robin- 
son, Secretary of State, and George S. Hillyer, Auditor of the 
State of Kansas, be and they are hereby impeached of high mis- 
demeanors in office. 

This resolution was unanimously adopted on the fol- 
lowing day. Being authorized and directed by the 



s Letter of William Higglns to the author. 



92 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

House to appoint a committee to conduct the impeach- 
ment cases in the trial before the Senate, the Speaker 
named Preston B. Plumb, Azel Spaulding, F. W. Pot- 
ter, W. B. Wagstaff and Davies Wilson to be such com- 
mittee. Plumb did the hard work of the prosecution. 
On the 20th day of February he reported on behalf 
of his committee, which was called the Committee of 
Managers of Impeachment Cases, eight articles of im- 
peachment of John W. Robinson, Secretary of State. 
On the 26th he reported seven articles of impeachment 
of George S. Hillyer, Auditor of State. And on the 
same day he reported five articles of impeachment of 
Charles Robinson, Governor of Kansas. These reports 
were all adopted — the articles against Governor Rob- 
inson by a vote of fifty-three to seven, and those against 
the others, unanimously. 

The trial of the impeachment cases began on the sec- 
ond day of June, 18G2, and adjourned without day 
on the sixteenth day of that month. The defendants 
were represented by able counsel. The proceedings of 
the Court of Impeachment, which was the State Senate, 
make a considerable volume, the printing of which was 
superintended by John J. Ingalls, but which had been 
reported by Richard J. Hinton. It is a rare and valu- 
able work. 

In the trial the evidence introduced established and 
sustained generally the charges brought by the House. 
The Secretary of State and the State Auditor were 
found guilty and were removed from office. As affect- 
ing Governor Robinson different conditions were shown 
and he was acquitted. 

There was no party rancor in these impeachment 
cases. They were the result of a desire of the people 
of Kansas to secure an honest and capable administra- 
tion of their affairs. Very little damage was caused to 
the financial reputation of the State, and at the close 
of the Civil War Kansas made ample provision for the 



THE BAR AND THE LEGISLATURE 93 

payment of all her obligations. The credit of the State 
has been what financiers call " gilt-edged " to this day. 



Here closes a period in the life of Plumb. It had 
been his intention to enlist in the Union army with the 
first call for troops. But circumstances over which he 
had little control made this impossible. Until another 
call for troops, which he was sure would come soon, he 
served as Reporter for the Supreme Court and prac- 
ticed his profession. 

Perhaps the reason for his not enlisting in one of 
the first Kansas regiments should be definitely stated 
here. Emporia was in Breckenridge County, and 
within about two miles of the south line of the county. 
The founders of the town were confident of its superior 
location and future growth. But to secure a satisfac- 
tory development in the early days of Kansas it became 
necessary that the town should be made a county seat. 
Efforts in this direction were made from time to time, 
but they proved barren of results. The matter could 
not be accomplished while the county lines remained as 
first laid down. It was clear that a radical readjust- 
ment of county boundaries would have to be effected, a 
matter in the province of the Legislature. 

There is little doubt that Plumb would willingly have 
sacrificed his own interest in Emporia to his desire to 
enter the army, but there were further considerations. 
He had induced many people to invest in the property 
of the town and establish themselves in business there. 
On their account and in their behalf there was a per- 
sonal obligation resting upon Plumb. All they had was 
involved in the success or failure of the town. They 
insisted that he be elected to the Legislature to secure 
such an adjustment of lines as should place Emporia 
in a position to be made the county seat, and to this he 
finally consented. 

To accomplish the desire of Emporia it became neces- 






01 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 



sary to wipe out Madison County, the county to the 
south. The counties as far west as Emporia had been 
established by the Pro-Slavery Legislature, which ac- 
counts for the name of Breckenridge County. This 
name was changed to Lyon County, in honor of General 
Nathaniel Lyon, the hero of Wilson Creek, where the 
first troops from Emporia had received their baptism of 
fire. By the action of the Legislature the location of 
Emporia was near the center of the new county and 
became the county seat. All this was brought about 
with much less friction than could have been expected, 
for county-seat contests in Kansas have generally caused 
serious clashes between interested parties and rival 
towns, sometimes resulting in the loss of life. In this 
case a suit in the Supreme Court was the final settle- 
ment, and everybody acquiesced in the decision. 

Having discharged his obligations to the settlers of 
Emporia Plumb was free to enlist, which he did at the 
first call for troops made after the adjournment of the 
Legislature. 



CHArTER XVI 

SUPREME COURT REPORTER — FIRST PRACTICE 

The first term of the Kansas Supreme Court was 
begun in January, 1862. The court was organized at 
that time. At this term Plumb was admitted to prac- 
tice in the Supreme Court, being the ninth attorney on 
the roll. 1 His first case in that court was filed on the 
day of his admission. It is No. 86, and it was one of 

' the most important which the court had to determine 
in the first years of its existence, the title being " The 

I State of Kansas on the relation of F. G. Hunt vs. 
Calvin Meadows." The first entry made in the record 
(on the 10th of January) is, "Now comes the said 
plaintiff by P. B. Plumb, Attorney, and moves the court 
to grant a writ of mandamus against the said defendent, 
whereupon it was ordered by the court that this cause 
be further heard on Monday morning, February 3d, 
1862." 

Plumb won his case, which involved the legality of 
many of the acts of the Territorial Legislature. This 
Legislature was in session when Kansas was admitted 
as a State, and it continued to enact laws for some time 
afterwards. 2 Meadows was Register of Deeds of Madi- 



i See Record A, p. 114, Kansas Supreme Court. It was Friday, 
January 10, 18G2. F. P. Baker and N. P. Case were admitted on the 
same day. Baker was afterward editor and proprietor of The TopcJca 
Commonwealth, long the principal newspaper in Kansas. 

2 The Territorial Legislature was in session at the time the act 
of admission was passed, and continued to transact business for 
several days afterward. The acts passed by this body, after admis- 
sion, were afterwards declared valid by the Supreme Court of the 

95 



96 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

son County, winch had been dismembered by the Legis- 
lature, and half its territory added to Breckenridge 
County. The people of Madison County resented the 
action attaching them to other counties and refused per- 
mission to transcribe from their records the deeds and 
mortgages affecting the lands given to Breckenridge 
County. Out of this refusal rose Plumb's suit. 

Plumb was the first Reporter of the Kansas Supreme 
Court. The date of his appointment has not been pre- 
served. It was then (and yet is) the practice of the 
court to have the instrument of appointment written 
out for the signature of the Justices. When signed, 
these appointments were handed to the clerk to be re- 
corded in the proceedings of the day of their date. 
Plumb evidently neglected to have his appointment re- 
corded. As it was the first made, and there being no 
precedent, the necessity for its record may not have 
occurred to him. The only official notice shown in the 
records concerning it is as follows : 

Supreme Court, 

January Term, 1863. 
The following paper was ordered to be filed and entered upon 
the Journal of the Court — to wit : 

Lewis Carpenter, Esqr., is hereby appointed Reporter of the 
Supreme Court in the room and place of P. B. Plumb, Esqr., 
resigned. 

Topeka, March 18, 1863. 

1ST. Cobb, 

L. D. Bailey, 

Samuel A. Kingman. 

Chief Justice Ewing's resignation was dated Pea 
Ridge, Arkansas, October 20, 1862. He was then 
Colonel of the Eleventh Kansas. Plumb was Major of 
the same regiment. They were together in the field, and 
it is probable that the resignations of both were sent in 



St;ite in the case of Hunt vs. Meadows. — Supreme Court Reports, 
Vol. 1, p. 14. 
The decision is in the same volume, p. 91, ct. seq. 



SUPREME COURT REPORTER 97 

at the same time. 3 Carpenter was murdered by 
Quantrill's guerrillas at the sacking of Lawrence, 
August 21, 18G3. 

No volume of Reports was published by Plumb. The 
decisions of the Supreme Court up to the time of his 
resignation did not furnish enough matter for a volume. 
In the Reports his name is carried as the first Reporter, 
where it is stated that he resigned in October, 1862. 

3 The resignation of Ewing as Chief Justice was presented to the 
Supreme Court, January 6, 1863, by Nelson Cobb, who had been 
appointed by the Governor to till the vacancy. See Supreme Court 
Record of that date. 






CHAPTER XVII 

EMPORIA AND THE CIVIL WAR 

That the country in that part of the Neosho Valley 
of which Emporia was the center should be able to 
furnish men for the army in 1861 is one of the remarkable 
things about early Kansas. There were no railroads, 
no lines of transportation, only occasional mails to most 
Tillages, and the settlers had arrived mostly after May, 
1857. Farms were merely claims with cabins about 
which were a few acres of "broken " prairie, or stumpy 
" clearings " on the wider bottoms. But even here the 
war spirit ran high, and some of the first Kansas sol- 
diers were from Emporia. In the village Literary So- 
ciety the state of the Union was ably discussed every 
week by Plumb, Judge Bailey, McClung, and others, 
among them William F. Cloud, formerly a soldier in 
the War with Mexico. It was in this society that it was 
decided that Plumb must not enlist until the Legislature 
elected in the fall of 1861 had adjourned, that he might 
there attend to some matters vital to the future of 
Emporia. 

On April, 27, 1861, three companies were organized 
in Emporia — 

The Emporia Guards, 55 men; Captain, William F. 
Cloud — 

The Emporia Artillery, 47 men; Captain, A. J. 
Mitchell — 

The Emporia Cavalry, 20 men. 

On the 13th of May, thirty-three men enlisted, and on 
the 14th the Emporia Guards tendered their services to 

98 



EMPORIA AND THE CIVIL WAK 99 

the Governor. They left for Lawrence on the 24th, and 
on the 20th of June they became Company n, Second 
Kansas Volunteer Infantry. The day before they de- 
parted for Lawrence a beautiful flag was presented to 
them by the women of Emporia, one of whom delivered 
a patriotic address as she tendered it to the standard- 
bearer. 1 Father Fairchild, a pioneer Methodist min- 
ister, spoke with eloquence and deep feeling. The com- 
pany w T as in the fierce battle of Wilson Creek, where it 
lost four killed and eleven w r ounded. For the number 
of men engaged this was one of the severest battles of 
the Civil War. The Lieutenant wrote home: 

Our little flag the ladies gave us is completely riddled with 
shot and shell. And the brave one who carried it will not carry 
it home again. Tell the donors it has not been disgraced. You 
know the odds we fought against ! I feel proud of our little 
Emporia Company. The State will never be disgraced by us. 
Our boys fought like devils for five long hours, and when the 
field was cleared the Kansas Second was the last to follow and 
cover the whole force. 

The home-coming of this company is described by one 
of the women who helped to make the flag : 2 

Sadly they marched up the aisle. Father Fairchild, who had 
prayed over them and blessed them and sent them to battle such 
a short time ago, received them with tears rolling down his 
wrinkled cheeks. They placed their flag in his hands. He un- 
folded it. We saw it full of bullet-holes, ragged and battle- 
stained. He pointed to the dark stains on the staff where the 
blood of our brave young soldier had trickled down, and told us 
how even in the struggle of death he had borne it up until a 



i Miss Fannie Yeakley, living now in California. Mrs. Anna 
Watson Randolph says the flag was made of a cloth called then " wool 
delaine " much like the fabric now known as challis. They either 
bought the red and white at a local store, or sent to Lawrence for it. 
They were unable to get any blue for the field, and Mrs. Edward 
Borton gave them enough blue cashmere from a dress pattern which 
her mother had sent her. 

2 Mrs. Anna Watson Randolph, living now at Emporia. 



100 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

comrade could take his place. It was the target for the whole 
rebel army, having been chosen the flag of the Second Kansas 
regiment because of its lightness. 

We sobbed and cried aloud. It was our first experience of the 
horrors of war. The old man pushed his long white hair back 
till it covered the collar of his shabby coat, straightened himself 
and said : " Boys, we thought to crush this rebellion in three 
months. How sadly we were mistaken ! Now we are ready for 
volunteers for the war, no matter how long it lasts. These poor 
boys must rest awhile. Others must take their places. The 
stars must float over every State in the Union. Not ragged, 
powder-stained and full of bullet-holes, as this poor flag. But 
her field must be bluer and her stars brighter. Every nation 
must fear and respect the Eed, White and Blue." 3 

Another company was soon raised at Emporia, and 
when it marched away few able-bodied men were left 
in the community. They went to Fort Leavenworth 
about the middle of September, 1861. And again did 
the women make a flag and present it to those going 
forth to fight for their country. The address of presen- 
tation has been preserved : 4 

A little over three months ago the ladies of Emporia pre- 
sented to Company H of the Kansas Second a flag as a testi- 
monial of their sympathy in behalf of the cause of Constitu- 
tional Liberty now imperiled by traitors. That flag has since 
waved over one of the most bloody conflicts ever known in this 
country. That flag, all bullet-torn as it is, we hope will be 
returned to its donors and be carefully preserved as a mute and 
eloquent memorial of the patriotism of those who fought be- 
neath its folds — especially of those brave and gallant soldiers 
who fell while bearing it aloft. While we mourn for our mar- 



s By order of General Fremont the word " Springfield " was 
inscribed on this flag. The battle was called the battle of Spring- 
field at that time, though it had been fought ten miles from that 
city. The flag is now in the Collection of the Kansas Historical 
Society. 

* It was delivered by Miss Mary Jane Watson, sister of Mrs. Anna 
Watson Randolph, and the Emporia Neics, September 21, 1861, says, 
" It was couched in beautiful language and was appropriate and to 
the point." 






EMPORIA AND THE CIVIL WAR 101 

tyred dead and mingle our tears with the bereaved widows and 

fatherless and look with pity on the scars of our returning neigh- 
bors and friends, it is a consolation to know that that flag has 
not been disgraced. You citizen-soldiers are about to take the 
places of your slaughtered neighbors, and the ladies of Emporia 
;have with their own hands made this beautiful flag, emblem of 
'our national power, and have deputed me to present it to you 
on their behalf. I charge you to guard it well. Rather would 
|we receive our brothers enshrouded in its folds than that they 
should desert it in danger. 

Go, then, and take with you the flag, and with it our blessing 
and prayers. Strike for our Country ! Let Liberty and Union 
be your inspiring watchword — God and Humanity your battle- 
cry. 

To no soldiers who fought for the Union could this 
patriotic appeal have been more appropriately made or 
the flag it brought with it more implicitly entrusted. 
At Fort Leavenworth they were mustered in as Com- 
pany H, Eighth Kansas. In the spring of 1862 this Com- 
pany was transferred to the Ninth Kansas, becoming 
Company B of that regiment. Those who lived returned 
home only when disabled by wounds or at the close of 
the War. One of the women who sent them into the 
field with blessings and prayers reminded the survivors 
in reunion many years afterward that their good-by was 
more serious and tragic than the parting with the first 
company; that it was for the war, and there was little 
hope that the war would soon end; that they were sent 
away with cheers, but that sorrowfully the women re- 
turned to their lonely homes ; that many of those women 
plowed and sowed and reaped that the children might 
ibe fed — that their burdens were great, but that they 
bore them with as much heroism as those who faced the 
cannon. 5 

Such were the sacrifices mrde for the Union by the 



b Some of this company were given a supper by a poor widow who 
lived near Emporia, and one of the young ladies present has written : 
I remember being at Mrs. Fawoett's when she was preparing a 
upper for some of the boys of Company E. She said, " Now, girls, 



102 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

loyal and patriotic outpost on the Great Plains — the 
frontier village of Emporia. It must be remembered, 
also, in this connection, that there were dangers to be 
faced at home. The savage Indian tribes of the Plains 
were being urged b}' emissaries of the Southern Con- 
federacy to fall on the weakened and exposed frontier 
settlements of Kansas with torch, tomahawk, and scalp- 
ing-knife in indiscriminate slaughter. And spies from 
Texas spent months in the country colonizing cut-throats 
to raid and destroy the thin fringe of settlers in the 
valley of the Neosho. Some of these, claiming to be 
Union men and refugees, settled in Emporia; and, to 
make their stratagem more complete and plausible, 
brought their families with them. Fortunately they 
were unmasked and imprisoned before they could ac- 
complish their cowardly and bloody purpose. By the 
aid of their confederates they escaped, and the settle- 
ment was in a state of fear and apprehension until the 
end of the war. 

That Emporia, under such conditions, should send 
away to battle for the Union all her able-bodied men 
reveals a devotion to the cause unequaled even in loyal 
Kansas. This devotion was largely the result of the 
course and influence of Plumb. The people adhered to 
the policy developed in the Netvs. They were, in ac- 
cordance with this policy, the last to abandon the Free- 
State party, to which their attachment had been almost 
fanatical. Dissensions were not permitted to arise. 
The settlers were a unit in sentiment and purpose and 
were never troubled by divided or distracted councils, 
— all the result of Plumb's leadership, which always 



make everything good and have plenty of it, for it may be a long 
time before the boys will have anything but army rations to eat." 
With this company were going her only son, her son-in-law, and her 
daughter's fiance, who was killed in Missouri. We laid the dead 
body of her daughter in Maplewood on the day which would have 
been her wedding-day. Her sou helped carry his wounded Captain 
from the battlefield at Prairie Grove. 






EMPORIA AND THE CIVIL WAR io:j 

took the form of serving in the ranks, of unselfish devo- 
tion to the people and their welfare, of sacrifices in 

: their interests. This was the secret of his power to 
the end. 

Following the reverses of McClellan before Richmond, 
President Lincoln, in July, 1802, issued a call for three 
hundred thousand volunteers to serve " three years or 
during the war." The quota of Kansas, under the call, 
was three regiments of infantry. The Governor of 
Kansas had not inspired the President with a favorable 
opinion of either his ability or patriotism, and James H. 
Lane, one of the United States Senators from Kansas, 

1 whose attitude left no question of his loyalty and devo- 
tion to the Union cause and the President, was au- 
thorized by the War Department to recruit this quota, 
and, under certain restrictions, to select the officers of 
the troops when mustered into service. Lane had been 
commissioned a Major-General in the Army, and in 18G1 
had led an invasion of Missouri. On the Oth of August 
he authorized Thomas Ewing, Jr., then Chief Justice 
of the Supreme Court, to raise one of these regiments in 
a territory embracing almost one-third of the State and 
including Lyon County — the name of the disloyal 
Breckenridge having been discarded for the county and 
the name of the hero of Wilson Creek substituted. The 
friendship of Ewing and Plumb drew them together in 
this matter. Plumb was authorized to recruit a com- 
pany in six counties, including his own. 6 In the Neics, 



c The appointment of riumb is in the library of the Kansas State 
Historical Society — 37c — Archives Department, and is as follows: 

Headquarters Rectg. Comn. 
District 11th Reot. K. V. 
Leavenworth City, August 12, 18G2. 
To Preston B. Plumb, Esqr., 

Sir: You are hereby notified that you have been appointed a 
recruiting officer with the rank of Second Lieutenant to recruit a 
Company of Infantry for the service of the United States for the term 
of three years or during the war. 

In the details of this service you will be governed by general order 



101 THE LIFE OF PKESTON B. PLUMB 

August 1G, he advertised — " 100 Men Wanted," and 
gave notice that Ewing would hold " War Meetings " 
at Neosho Rapids, August 22; at Emporia, August 23; 
at Americus on the evening of the 23d; and at Council 
Grove, August 25. In the issue of the News, August 
30, in a notice headed, " More Bounty," Plumb an- 
nounced that " A fund is being raised in Emporia for 
the purpose of paying to the needy families of those who 
enlist in the Lyon County Company, a bounty of Twenty 
Dollars each per annum until the War is closed." He 
headed the subscription with $100 per annum. A farmer 
from up the Neosho who owned good teams and a car- 
riage took Ewing about the country to his meetings. 
Ewing was an able man, but cold in temperament. His 
speeches were well received, as were all loyal speeches, 



No. 75 " Current Series," a copy of which is herewith enclosed, 
excepting that all reports referred to therein will be made to this 
ollice. 

When mustered into the service of the U. S. you will report 
immediately at this office for orders. 

Thomas Ewing, Jr. 

Commr. of Rect'g Leavenworth, Dist. 
Department of Kansas. 
Endorsements : 

The within appointment is approved and referred to Brig. Genl. 
Blunt, Comdg. Dept of Kansas with the request that Lieut. Plumb 
be mustered into the service of the U. S. 
By order of J. H. Lane, Recrt'g. 
T. J. Weed, Maj. & A.A.A.G. 

Headquarters Dept. Kas. 
Port Leavenworth, August 12, '62. 
The Mustering officer will comply with the within. 
By order of Brig. Gen. J. G. Blunt. 
Jas. M. Graham, Capt. & A.A.A.G. 

Headquarters Dep. or Kansas. 
Muster Office, August 12, '62. 
1 certify that I have tliis day mustered into the U. S. Service for 
3 yrs. or the w:ir P. B. Plumb, to serve as recruiting officer rank of 
2d Lt. of Infty Subject to conditions of General Order 75 compliance 
With within appointment. 

2d. Lt. Lewis Thompson, 
2d. U. S. Cavalry. 
Mustering Officer. 



EMP01MA AND THE CIVIL WAR 105 

but the enthusiasm was aroused by Plumb, who spoke 
after him at each appointment and whose speech was a 
heart to heart talk of neighbor to neighbor, friend to 
friend. He did not minimize the sacrifice of enlistment 
under the circumstances, but put the matter on the 
ground of duty to the Union. 

The men were secured but it required them all. The 
News said only the editor and the " devil " remained 
in the printing office, and that the editor could not resist 
another call. " Our town is about dried up," it says. 
" Since the boys left it is a rarity to see a man." And 
of the departure of the recruits it has the following: 

The soldiers who enlisted under Plumb took their depar- 
ture on Tuesday morning. Before they left they were presented 
. . . with a splendid flag, made by the ladies. The presentation 
speech was made by old Father Fairchild, and the flag was re- 
ceived by Plumb in one of his happiest efforts. The scene at 
parting was very affecting, parents, sisters, daughters, wives, chil- 
dren and friends were present to bid the soldiers farewell, many 
of them feeling that it was the last parting on earth. Few eyes 
that did not shed tears, but all felt that the sacrifice must be 
made. Stout hearts trembled. Twenty teams had been fur- 
nished by the generous citizens to convey the boys to Fort Leav- 
enworth. As they passed over the hill, cheers on cheers went 
up from the long lines of wagons, and were responded to by the 
citizens left behind. 

One of the worthy women of Emporia was a little 
girl when these men went away in obedience to the call 
of the country and in recognition of duty. She saw them 
go. That scene has remained with her. At one of their 
recent reunions she pictured this parting and other ex- 
periences of those days of trial and sorrow : 

If you look closely you can see it all, and you may see little 
sad groups gathering here and there. The old father's shoulders 
are stooped, the mother is trying to look brave, the little ones 
are openly weeping. The wife with head thrown back and firm- 
shut mouth will not quiver. "What means it all ? For in each 
group are one or two upon whom each one gazes as we gaze on 
the face of our dead. 



106 TIIE LIFE OP PRESTON B. PLUMB 



Presently, as if by signal, these special ones walk slowly out 
and form into ranks and we see who they are — the fathers, 
brothers, sons, and lovers, human sacrifices on the altar of our 
country. Willingly they are given and willingly they went. As 
they stand there a woman with a flag comes forward giving it 
to them as an offering of love and trust, bidding them defend it 
with their lives, if necessary, and bring it back to them. And 
they did, but its bright folds were battle-scarred and storm-riven, 
like the men who brought it. The old flag is still with us, and 
long may it stay to teach its lessons of faithfulness, courage 
and love of country. 

But they did not all come back. I see a picture of a few men 
leaving the ranks in this ceaseless march bearing the form of a 
comrade, which they silently lay in its last resting-place — the 
last act they can do except as they sit by the camp-fire to write to 
the weary, waiting ones at home. We see, too, those twenty 
teams that Plumb called for to carry those men to Leavenworth. 
Where did he get the drivers ? Or did those brave women drive 
their own loved ones to the Fort? 

We see that village and most of the farms deserted of men, 
stores closed until those women could gather themselves together 
and take up the burdens. Those years of war and struggle! 
As I look at them now with a woman's understanding I cannot 
conceive how we endured ! 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE ELEVENTH KANSAS 

Camp Lyon, at Fort Leavenworth, was the regimental 
rendezvous. Plumb arrived there with one hundred and 
forty enlisted men. He was emphatic in his declaration 
to the examining surgeon that none of his men should be 
rejected. Six were, however, rejected because of youth 
and immaturity, but Plumb had them enlist as 
musicians. 1 On September 10, 1862, one hundred and 
one of the accepted men were mustered in as Company 
C, Eleventh Kansas, and the remaining thirty-three 
were mustered into Company E, same regiment, of which 
E. G. Ross, of Topeka, was Captain. Plumb was Cap- 
tain of Company C. The last company was mustered 
on the 14th, and the regimental organization was com- 
pleted. Thomas Ewing, Jr., was Colonel, Thomas 
Moonlight was Lieutenant-Colonel, and Plumb was 
chosen Major. Lemuel T. Heritage, who had served as 
First-Lieutenant of Company B, Ninth Kansas Cavalry, 
and a lifelong friend of Plumb, was then elected Captain 
of Company C. Plumb was mustered in as Major Sep- 
tember 25, 1862. 

Before the regiment was armed an order from Gen- 
eral James G. Blunt was received directing it to join 
him forthwith in the field. He had just fought the sec- 
ond battle of Newtonia and was in pursuit of the enemy. 
The only infantry arms at Fort Leavenworth at that 
time were antiquated Prussian muskets (made in 1818) 
which had been purchased by that fatuous soldier, Gen- 



i Statement of Dr. G. W. Hogebooin, the examining surgeon. 



107 



108 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

eral Fremont. These guns were of ancient pattern, of 
enormous bore, and one-fourth heavier than the old En- 
field or Springfield gun. They were brass-finished, and 
of extra length. They were hastily drawn and issued to 
the men, who, after viewing them, and especially after 
hefting them, wondered if the regiment was to be as- 
signed to duty as light artillery. 

Colonel Ewing had had no experience in war, and it 
was his idea that the men could march thirty miles a 
day. Moonlight, who had seen service in the regular 
army, told him fifteen miles a day was as much as in- 
fantry could make. But Ewing was impatient to join 
Blunt, and he had his way. The result was that the 
men were scattered along the road for miles. At Paola, 
a few wagons were secured for the foot-sore, and from 
Mound City the guns were carried in wagons to Fort 
Scott. Beyond Fort Scott the march was made to con- 
form more to reason, and was through Drywood, Pres- 
ton, Carthage, and Newtonia to Pea Ridge, Arkansas. 
From Fort Scott the regiment escorted an ammunition 
train and was accompanied by Blair's Battery. Gen- 
eral Schofield was in command of the Army of the 
Frontier, at Pea Ridge. The regiment arrived there 
October 19th, and was reviewed by General Schofield, 
after which it was dined by the Tenth Kansas and as- 
signed to General Blunt's Division — the First — and 
by him assigned to the Third Brigade, commanded by 
Colonel Cloud (from Emporia) of the Second Kansas 
Cavalry. 

Kansas was the object of intense hatred by the South- 
ern Confederacy. She had successfully resisted the ex- 
tension of slavery into the Territories and changed the 
destiny of the Union as conceived by the South. Ef- 
forts were made from the very first to invade the State 
in f< >rce and lay it waste. Hordes of guerrillas wore 
maintained on her borders to rob and murder, burn 



THE ELEVENTH KANSAS 109 

and destroy, and run to cover in Missouri, Arkansas, 
and the Indian country. The resources of the Con- 
federacy west of the Mississippi were sacrificed in a last 
forlorn and disastrous effort to overrun and destroy 
Kansas when it was evident that the Price raid would 
have availed nothing for the cause of the South if it 
had been successful. 

In the execution of one feature of the settled policy 
of the Union — the protection of Kansas from inva- 
sion — Northwestern Arkansas became an area of con- 
tention and active military operations. It was, in fact, 
the outpost for the protection of both Missouri and 
Kansas. This was first recognized by General Lyon 
when he made Springfield the principal point of defense 
of St. Louis. To hold this field was the work assigned 
the Army of the Frontier in the winter of 1862-63. 

With the object of raiding Kansas and capturing Fort 
Scott, where there were stores of military supplies, Gen- 
eral D. H. Cooper took possession of Old Fort Wayne, 
Cherokee Nation, just beyond the Arkansas line west of 
Bentonville, and began there to assemble his forces. 
To dislodge him General Blunt marched from Pea 
Ridge on the night of the 20th of October with the 
Eleventh Kansas and other troops. On the night of the 
21st he marched from Bentonville, and at daylight of 
the 22d surprised Cooper in his camp and scattered his 
men. Captain Crawford, of the Second Kansas, led the 
principal charge and captured four brass field pieces. 
The Eleventh Kansas had the infantry advance and 
marched on double-quick six miles, throwing away 
blankets, overcoats and knapsacks in the hurry and 
eagerness to take part in the battle, but arrived just in 
time to see the enemy disappearing in confusion and 
disorder. It was jestingly said that when the Confed- 
erate troops saw the Eleventh Kansas, long drawn out 
in columns of twos, descending the winding road with 



110 THE LIFE OP PRESTON B. PLUMB 

their ancient brass-bound muskets glittering in the 
morning sun, they were seized with panic and precipi- 
tately fled, believing the whole Federal army armed 
with diabolic contrivances was upon them. 2 

The First Division of the army marched from Fort 
Wayne to Little Osage, six miles south of Bentonville, 
and went into camp. Companies D and E, Eleventh 
Kansas, with Major Plumb in command, were sent to 
Brown's Mill, ten miles to the southwest of the camp. 
Major Plumb sent foraging parties into the surround- 
ing country and gathered all the wheat and much of 
the corn of the country. The loyal citizens were paid 
for their grain, but from the disloyal it was taken. 
Other mills on the mountain streams were seized, and 
in them the wheat was ground for use of the army, as 
was much of the corn. Many of the people were loyal 
to the Union and were in danger there. These, black 
and white, Major Plumb organized into a party which 
he sent into Kansas where they would be beyond danger, 
using for the purpose wagons and teams taken from the 
disloyal. At Cincinnati, near the Cherokee line, the 
Confederates had taken possession of a large tannery, 
known as Robinson's tannery, to manufacture leather 
to furnish Hindman's army with shoes. Major Plumb 
destroyed both the half-tanned leather and the tannery. 

2 G. M. Walker was at t*he battle of Old Fort Wayne, of which he 
relates the following incident : 

We had marched all night. W T e heard firing in front of us; the 
order " Double Quick " was given, and we started forward on the run, 
or as near a run as could weary men who had inarched all night 
carrying heavy muskets and forty rounds of 72 caliber ammunition. 
While thus making the best speed we could, Adjutant Williams met 
us with " Hurry up, boys, or all will be lost." We needed encourage- 
ment. This was not very encouraging. Then Colonel Moonlight met 
us with " Hurry up, boys, or you will miss all the fun." We were not 
in for fun. Then Major Plumb met us with " Hurry up, boys ; you 
are needed." We had gone from a sense of duty, and here was the 
message we needed ; every man who heard it was goaded to do his 
best. In these three sentences, or orders, I read the characters of the 
men who gave them. 



THE ELEVENTH KANSAS 111 

In the two weeks he was at Brown's Mill he had ren- 
dered the country incapable of maintaining a large Con- 
federate force and had contributed largely to the sup- 
port of the Union forces camped at Little Osage. 



CHAPTER XIX 

CANE HILL 

Tiie Confederacy determined to drive the Army of 
the Frontier from Northwest Arkansas and regain that 
country, and this General Hindman was ordered to pro- 
ceed at once to do. He assembled his forces at Fort 
Smith and Van Buren and made preparations for an ac- 
tive and vigorous winter campaign. General Blunt kept 
fully informed of the movements of Hindman. On the 
14th of November he removed his entire force to Lind- 
say's Prairie, a fine stretch of open country on the south 
side of Flint Creek and extending into the Cherokee Na- 
tion. There he waited impatiently two weeks for trains 
to arrive with supplies of ammunition and rations. No 
offensive movements could be undertaken until these sup- 
plies had been received, and in the meantime Hindman 
sent Marmaduke with eight thousand cavalry and a bat- 
tery of artillery to occupy Cane Hill, a village just 
north of the Boston Mountains and about thirty miles 
south of Lindsay's Prairie. This was but the advance 
of the Confederate army, and on the 26th of November 
General Blunt learned that Marmaduke would be joined 
by Hindman with his entire force on the 28th. ''On the 
night of the 26th the supply trains arrived. Four 
days' rations and eighty rounds of ammunition were is- 
sued to the men. On the morning of the 27th, with 
five thousand men and thirty pieces of artillery, without 
transportation or commissary, those trains having been 
parked on Lindsay's Prairie, Blunt moved to attack 
and defeat Marmaduke before Hindman could reinforce 

112 




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CANE HILL 113 

him, and arrived at Cane Hill at eleven o'clock on 
the 28th. 

Marmaduke was found in strong position on the 
heights about the village. The march of the Union 
troops had been a forced one and the infantry did not 
arrive on the field until after the artillery had been en- 
gaged an hour. The Eleventh Kansas, hearing the can- 
non, marched at quick-step and double-quick five miles. 
Coming on the field, Major Plumb led the left wing for- 
ward to the hill overlooking the hamlet of Boonsborough, 
where he was followed by the batteries of Eabb and 
Hopkins. 1 The rebels were soon driven from the hills 
about the town and forced south along the Van Buren 
road, the Eleventh Kansas and Rabb's Battery follow- 
ing closely to Kidd's Mills. To this point the fighting 
had been through woods and fields, but there the 
Eleventh came into the road, which was followed to 
the west range of the Boston Mountains. There the 
battery was compelled to wait for additional horses, and 
the Eleventh Kansas passed it and formed on the flat 
summit. With other troops, the regiment, with line 
varying from a quarter to a half-mile as permitted by 
the ground, slowly drove the enemy along the hills and 
through the ravines. In this fighting, which lasted 
about an hour, the Confederates lost a number of their 
officers and continued their retreat. When they were 
out of sight Colonel Ewing formed the Eleventh in a 
field and moved forward four miles in support of the 
batteries in the valley of Cove Creek, just above the 



i Thomas Barber, Company C, saw Plumb's horse shot from under 
him at this point ; he says : 

The Eleventh was charging on the retreating rebels — harl driven 
them back by the charge. A part of the Sixth Kansas came into the 
charge from an oblique direction and took position just by the side 
of the Eleventh and overlapped it a little. I remember that Plumb's 
horse was shot and disabled. Plumb had no time to get another 
one, but kept his place in the charge on foot, running abreast of the 
charging column. 



114 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

gorge. There the battle was finished by the brilliant 
charge of the Sixth Kansas, which encountered an am- 
bush in which Colonel Jewell was mortally wounded. 
Marmaduke was driven back on Van Buren in con- 
fusion, though the battle had been on ground of his 
own selection. His troops largely outnumbered those 
of Blunt, and were well fortified on hills defended with 
artillery. 

In this preliminary battle for the possession of North- 
west Arkansas the Union troops had won an important 
victory and wrested from the enemy a position of 
strategic value. The Eleventh Kansas had never be- 
fore been under fire, but the men fought like veterans, 
and in his oflficial report Colonel Ewing said, " There 
was no lack of spirit or courage evinced by any officer 
or private belonging to it." In addition to its fighting, 
the regiment marched not less than thirty-four miles 
that day. In this, its initial experience of real war, 
the Eleventh Kansas acquitted itself well and gave as- 
surance of that honorable record afterwards made by it. 



CHAPTER XX 

PRAIRIE GROVE 

The defeat of Marmaduke at Cane Hill and his ex- 
pulsion from the region north of the Boston Mountains 
did not change the purpose of General Hindman. He 
was well informed as to the strength and position of 
General Blunt's army, and he knew that the nearest 
troops which Blunt could call to his aid were more 
than a hundred miles away. Hindman's army con- 
sisted of infantry, cavalry, and artillery, and numbered 
about twenty-five thousand men, though in his official 
reports he insisted that he had only twelve to fifteen 
thousand. He had six thousand cavalry, and thirty 
pieces of artillery. 1 He believed he could march from 
Van Buren to Cane Hill, fifty miles, and defeat Blunt 
before he could be reinforced. It is probably true that 
lack of supplies prevented him from taking all his 
troops on his campaign against Blunt, but he had at 
least fifteen thousand effective troops in the field, prob- 
ably more, although he reported eleven thousand in ad- 
dition to his artillery. He believed it was necessary 
for him to achieve some success at once, if his army was 
to be held intact. Both ammunition and food were 
short. There was a spirit of insubordination in his 
ranks. Many of his men were conscripts, Union men, 
who had been forced into the Confederate army, and 
they had no sympathy with the Southern cause. Num- 
bers of them were deserting every day. Hindman, while 

i See official reports, Series 1, Vol. XXII, Part 1 Rebellion Records, 
pp. 67-158 for number of troops on each side. 

115 



116 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

an able officer, was unpopular, and even then the Con- 
federacy was failing west of the Mississippi. But if a 
decisive victory could be won in Northwest Arkansas, 
and Kansas and Missouri thrown open to invasion, a 
better face would be put on the cause in the Southwest. 
These were the considerations which actuated the Con- 
federate commander. 

General Hindman moved north from Van Buren on 
the 3d of December. So certain was he of success that 
he ordered a regiment of Confederate Indians to occupy 
Evansville, a village immediately west of Cane Hill, to 
prevent the escape of Blunt in that direction. On the 
night of the 4th the rebel force bivouacked at Oliver's 
store, on Lee's Creek, at the mouth of Cove Creek. Up 
Cove Creek the march was slow, but by the evening of 
the 6th the entire army had reached the junction of the 
Cane Hill and Fayetteville roads, at General Price's 
old headquarters, on the farm of John Morrow, about 
eight miles southeast of Cane Hill. It did not, how- 
ever, reach this point, without opposition from Blunt. 
On the 3d of December Captain Samuel J. Crawford, 
Second Kansas, was sent down Cove Creek with a part 
of his regiment, and at Oliver's he met and skirmished 
with Marmaduke's advance. The next day Captain A. 
P. Russell, Second Kansas, was sent to scout down 
Cove Creek, where he met the enemy in increasing 
force. Crawford was again sent out on the 5th with 
two or three companies of his regiment and resisted the 
advance of Marmaduke up Cove Creek most of the day. 
Near night he posted Captain John Gardner, with two 
companies, at the junction of the Cane Hill and Fayette- 
ville roads, and as it was certain that he would be at- 
tacked by an overwhelming force and pushed back at 
daylight, Crawford was to send out substantial rein- 
forcements during the night. From that point to Cane 
Hill the advance of Hindman was to be stubbornly 
fought. For some cause the reinforcements were not 




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PRAIRIE GROVE 117 

sont to Captain Gardner, although General Blunt as- 
sured Crawford that they should be sent and gave the 
proper orders. Of this Crawford learned at daylight 
of the Gth while discussing conditions with a group 
of officers at the headquarters of Colonel Cloud. These 
officers did not believe with Crawford that a general 
battle might be fought that day — certainly within a 
day or two — in the vicinity of Cane Hill and possibly 
between the town and the position of Captain Gardner. 
r In thirty minutes," said Crawford, " you will see a 
courier from Captain Gardner on a foam-covered horse 
coming around that hill. His command is, I fear, cut 
to pieces." Within fifteen minutes the courier appeared, 
and Crawford, who had taken the precaution to have 
his men ready, secured orders and at once started with 
five companies of the Second Kansas to the assistance 
of Captain Gardner, whom he found had been driven a 
mile and a half, but formed across the road and falling 
back slowly before a greatly superior force, fighting at 
every step. Crawford formed just behind him and 
ordered him to file by and form in the rear. 

In a short time General Blunt sent other troops down 
the Cane Hill road, among them Major Plumb with two 
companies of the Eleventh Kansas. Plumb was the 
ranking officer at the front; and, although hotly en- 
gaged, Captain Crawford offered him the command. 
" Plumb was a patriot and never stood on fine points 
of military usage," said Crawford. 2 " He was an in- 
fantry officer, and most of the troops at the front were 
cavalry and then in line fighting back the advance of the 
enemy, and he insisted that a cavalry officer retain the 
command, requesting me to continue in that capacity. 
I agreed to do so and pointed out the position where I 
desired him to post his men." Other reinforcements 
were sent out, and the position was' held, but at times it 



2 Statement made to the author April 27, 1911. 



118 THE LIFE OP PRESTON B. PLUMB 

was a difficult matter. Crawford, afterwards a Colonel, 
and, later, Governor of Kansas, bears witness that 
Plumb handled his men admirably and fought well all 
day, though it was the second time he had ever been 
under fire. Toward night the main w r eight of the battle 
fell on him, and he held his ground, and the day ended 
with the whole force of Hindman checked on Reed's 
Mountain six miles southeast of Cane Hill. At night 
the officers who had been at the front throughout the 
day were relieved, and Plumb and Captain A. P. Russell 
rode back to Cane Hill with Crawford. Russell had a 
presentiment that he would be killed the next day, and 
gave some directions as to the disposition of his effects 
He could not be shaken in his belief — and the next daj 
fell while fighting manfully. 3 

During the night of the 6th Major Plumb w r as sen I 
back to the front with reinforcements, where he re 
mained on Sunday the 7th, until after General Blunt'* 
army had moved out of Cane Hill to meet Hindman 
An officer of the general staff found him there and ii 
surprise inquired if he did not know that Cane nil 
had been evacuated and that Hindman had passed oi 
north. Plumb said he knew it. " Then what are yoi 
staying here for? " asked the officer. " I haven't ha( 
any orders to fall back," replied Plumb. The officer, oi 
his own responsibility, ordered Plumb back, and hi 
joined his regiment north of Cane Hill just as the artil 
lery firing was heard and the march to Prairie Grov 
began. 

When General Blunt was convinced that he was to b 



3 The fighting here this day, December 6, was a most importar 
engagement. It seems to have been overlooked by historians. Se 
Rebellion Records, Series 1, Vol. XXII, Part l^pp. GO-GO, for tb 
official reports of it. There it is called the battle of Reed's Mountaii 
The best account of this battle is to be found in Kansas in the Sixtie' 
by Samuel J. Crawford, who was in command. See pp. 72-7G, ii 
elusive, where the subject is treated as the battle of the Bosto 
Mountains. 



PRAIRIE GROVE 119 

attacked by Ilindman with greatly superior numbers 
he determined to hold his ground and call to his aid 
the Second and Third Divisions, camped then on the 
old Wilson Creek battle-field ten miles southwest of 
Springfield, Mo. General F. J. Herron was in com- 
mand, and on the morning of the third, he received 
the telegraphic order of General Blunt to join him at 
Cane Hill as quickly as possible. Within three hours 
he moved with the Third Division and was immediately 
followed by the Second. That night he camped at 
Crane Creek, in Stone County, Mo., where it is crossed 
by the famous Wire or Telegraph road*, which led from 
Springfield, through Fayetteville, to Van Buren. He 
kept to this road, passing rapidly over it, reaching Elk- 
horn Tavern (Pea Ridge) on the evening of the 5th. 
There he received an order from General Blunt to for- 
ward his cavalry force at once, which he did, sending 
it on sixteen hundred strong under Colonel Dudley 
Wickersham; it arrived at Cane Hill near midnight of 
the 6th. 

General Herron arrived at Fayetteville at four o'clock 
Sunday morning (the 7th), having marched all night, 
and pushed on expecting to join General Blunt at Cane 
Hill about ten o'clock. He intended to follow the Van 
Buren road to Prairie Grove Church and there take 
the road leading southwest to Cane Hill. From the 
vicinity of Fayetteville information reached General 
Hindman of Herron's near approach, and early on the 
night of Saturday the Confederate commander de- 
termined to move his army up the Fayetteville road to 
meet and defeat Herron before he could join Blunt — 
after which he would fight it out with Blunt. Colonel 
J. C. Monroe, with his brigade of Arkansas cavalry, was 
ordered to engage the Union forces on the mountain 
southeast of Cane Hill at daylight and deceive them 
as long as possible, and at four o'clock Hindman moved 
toward Fayetteville with the remainder of his army. 



120 THE LIFE OF PBESTON B. PLUMB 

Marmaduke's cavalry led the march, and shortly after 
daylight it came upon Herron's advance — the First 
Arkansas Cavalry — about halfway between Fayette- 
ville and Cane Hill. The cavalry of Herron's Second 
Division had come up with the First Arkansas and 
stopped to rest and feed their horses, intending to start 
on to join General Blunt at dawn. There seem to have 
been no precautions taken to guard against surprise. 
The attack was sudden and fierce, and the Union cavalry 
fled in panic and disorder, pursued by at least three 
thousand Missouri cavalry, including QuantrilFs guer- 
rillas, under Shelby. At seven o'clock this rabble, with 
bloodthirsty guerrillas on its heels, ran into the Union 
infantry advance, led by General Herron, six miles 
south of Fayetteville, and it w T as with difficulty that the 
mad rout was checked. General Herron had himself 
to shoot dead one of the panic-stricken cavalrymen as 
an example of the fate of all who would not halt, face 
about and fight. Taking four companies of infantry, 
some cavalrv, and a section of artillery, General Her- 
ron drove Marmaduke's outriders back four miles to 
Illinois Creek, bevond which he found Hindman's whole 
army in a strong position. The command of Shelby, 
with the prisoners and train taken shortly before, was 
just ascending to this position from the creek valley 
when it was opened on with two pieces of artillery, 
which served only to increase its speed. 

General Herron now made a survey of the Confed- 
erate position. It was in an extensive grove of timber 
on a singular elevation, which extends from east to 
west across the Fayetteville and Van Buren road which 
cuts through it in a southwesterly direction. The eleva- 
tion rises from a prairie or plain. It slopes gently to 
(he south, but on the north it presents a sharp escarp- 
ment. The grove on the ridge joined larger bodies of 
limber at either end. At the south side of the grove 
the Cane Hill road turned sharply southwest toward 



PRAIRIE GROVE 121 

that village. In the fork of the road a mile south of 
the Confederate position, stood the Prairie Grove 
Church. North of the elevation there is a wide valley 
through which a small stream flows into Illinois Creek, 
and much of which had been cultivated, the dead stalks 
of the corn still standing in the fields. Beyond this 
valley, to the north, is a prairie, and some timbered 
hills which rise to the same level as the hill on which is 
Prairie Grove. In front of the Confederate position, 
along the north fringe of the grove, on the slope, stood 
some dwellings surrounded by enclosures; and about 
the fields were rail fences. The survey revealed a Con- 
federate line more than two miles in length, and while 
there were no means of ascertaining the number of the 
enemy, enough could be seen to indicate certainly that 
the Union forces were far outnumbered. 

By cutting a road through a thicket half a mile be- 
low the ford on Illinois Creek, Herron got Murphy's 
battery into fine position facing the enemy's center. 
This battery he divided into two sections, w T hich he 
placed six hundred yards apart, both concealed by the 
thicket from the enemy. Two regiments of infantry 
were thrown to the right of the battery and one to the 
left. Colonel Orme was sent across Illinois Creek at the 
ford with the Second Brigade of the Third Division, 
and ordered to divide his battery as Murphy's had been, 
station his infantry in the rear, and open at once. 
Colonel Bertram was ordered to take the first Brigade 
across the creek and form on the right of Orme, dividing 
his battery as had the others. 

Most of these preliminaries were completed before 
eleven o'clock, and some of them perhaps as late as 
twelve, on Sunday morning. General Herron gives the 
hour as ten o'clock. Murphy's battery opened the battle, 
and under his fire all the remaining batteries crossed the 
creek and were soon in positions in line of those with 
Orme and Bertram. In ten minutes General Herron 



122 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

had eighteen pieces doing most effective work, and they 
were replied to with twenty-two of the pieces of Hind- 
man, the firing of which never approached even fairi 
gunnery. The fire of Herron's artillery was terrible and 
deadly from the first. Some of the Confederate guns 
were dismounted, and their artillery horses lay dead in 
heaps of four to six in every position taken. In an effort 
to abate this awful storm of lead and iron against which 
nothing could long stand, Hindman threw heavy infantry 
columns against the Union right. But this was without 
avail. They were always stopped by the Union artillery 
and pursued in their return to their own lines. Herron 
ordered the Nineteenth Iowa and Twentieth Wisconsin 
to turn them back again after the battle had been in 
progress for some time, which was done with such fierce 
enthusiasm that the rebel lines were rolled back a thou- 
sand yards, and a battery of four pieces was captured. 
To meet and stay this onslaught, Hindman sent forward 
every available man, and such numbers fell on the 
Union charging line that it could not bring off the cap- 
tured battery, and retired without it. 

This was late in the afternoon, and at that moment 
there appeared on the rebel left masses of men in blue. 
They emerged from the woods which fringed the prairies 
as a long-confined flood bursts its banks. The rush and 
roar of their coming were as the sound of storm-driven 
seas. They poured forth, seemingly in inextricable con- 
fusion — cavalry, infantry, artillery, officers and sub- 
alterns, brigades, regiments, companies and squadrons — 
a throng wrought to the extreme of excitement, frenzy, 
madness. Every artillery horse was bestridden by a 
man plying a merciless lash, and was running as if com 
ing down the home-stretch — neck straightened, ears 
flattened, eyes wild, nostrils dilated. Clinging to the 
guns and caissons were the artillerymen, flung and 
tossed like sailors on tempest-beaten wrecks. The cav- 
alry, lying over saddle-horns, burst from the bordering 



PRAIRIE GROVE 123 

thickets under whip and spur. The infantry, keeping 
even pace in this mad race, came into the open, hatless, 
coatless, accouterments streaming out behind, but with 
guns tightly clutched and ammunition safe. Over and 
above all floated the Stars and Stripes; and the showing 
of regimental banners halted men, straightened tangled 
ranks, formed columns, fashioned the confused mass 
into an orderly battle-line straight and rigid as a steel 
bar. 

Because of the failure of a scouting column to report 
the movement north of Hindman's army General Blunt 
was in ignorance of the exact conditions confronting 
him on the morning of the 7th. He was still expecting 
an attack at Cane Hill and disposed his lines to receive 
it. At ten o'clock, when it was certain that the enemy 
; in his front was only covering some maneuver, he moved 
in the direction of his base of supplies at Rhea's Mills, 
\ a few miles north. He was anxiously awaiting some 
1 intelligence from General Herron, whom he had expected 
| to arrive at Cane Hill in the forenoon by the road turn- 
ing toward the west at Prairie Grove Church. That a 
battle must be fought that day General Blunt knew, and 
when no enemy of consequence appeared he had set out 

• to find one. He moved cautiously, and was ready for 
i an attack from any quarter. The booming of General 
i Herron's artillery was the first definite information 

which reached him. He knew at once what had hap- 

• pened and where the battle would be. And so did the 
^ army, which moved as one man toward Herron's posi- 
tion. General Blunt announced the arrival of his army 
on the field by two cannon-shots, and as he did not know 
the positions occupied by the contending forces, the balls 

; fell among the Union skirmishers. General Herron 

furnished him exact information by the time his line was 

formed, and General Blunt quickly fronted the left wing 

( | of the Confederate battle-line, taking position near the 

i : skirt of woods extending from the grove down to the 



124 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

foot of the slope, but with his men in the clear and both, 
wings of his army extending into open fields. 

And not a moment too soon did he form there, for the 
battle was reaching a critical juncture. The last of 
Hindman's infantry had arrived, which, together with 
Marmaduke's cavalry, nindman was throwing forward 
to crush General Herron's right. It was to move by the 
rebel left over the field just occupied by the Union line, 
and General Blunt's men received this onset and turned 
it back after hard fighting. The right wing of the 
Eleventh Kansas formed in the edge of the woods and 
was led by Colonel Ewing, and the left under Moonlight 
formed in support of the batteries of Rabb and Hopkins. | 
The left wing advanced halfway up the slope, fixed 
bayonets for a charge at the crest, and lay down to await 
the order to advance, which was given as the rebel 
infantry appeared four ranks deep driven by the cavalry 
regiments acting as file-closers. The fire of the Eleventh 
checked them for only a moment, and a fierce struggle 
ensued. The Eleventh was forced back, sometimes with 
line broken, but always closing quickly, to a fence below 
the top of the hill, where a stand was made. The posi- 
tion could not be held, but the main line was maintained 
until the enemy fell back at dark. The artillery had 
been protected and had played at short range on the 
enemy with double charges of grape and canister with 
terrible effect. As night was falling the^batteries were 
just in the act of firing on a body of infantry coming out 
of the woods. Plumb believed it was the right wing of 
his regiment and prevented the fire. He rode forward 
and found it to be Colonel Ewing, as he had supposed 
and whom he had saved by his watchful care. 4 



* Those survivors interviewed mostly say that Flumb commanded 
the loft win? of the Eleventh Kansas in the hattle. The official re- 
ports give this honor to Colonel Moonlight, but he was an artillery 
officer, and no doubt gave some of his attention to the operation of 
the gnns. In his report Colonel Moonlight specially mentions the 
services of Major Plumb on the field and pays a high tribute to his 
courage and ahility. 



PRAIRIE GROVE 125 

Hindman had done Lis best. His assault on Blunt's 
line had been desperate, but unsuccessful. Having 
doubt of the loyalty of much of his infantry, he drove 
it into action with his cavalry, as we have seen. ODe 
of his regiments deserted on the field. At nightfall he 
was defeated, and saw that he must retreat, and he 
feared that even retreat was impossible. By the abuse 
of the usage of the flag of truce he secured time osten- 
sibly to bury his dead and attend his wounded, 
but which he utilized in getting his men on the 
road back to Van Buren, practically abandoning 
both his dead and wounded. With him disappeared the 
hope of the Confederacy in Missouri and Northwest 
Arkansas. His defeat was decisive. 5 



b The reports of the officers of both sides are published in Rebellion 
Records, Series I, Vol. XXII, Part I, pp. 67-158. 



CHAPTER XXI 

BUCK & BALL 

The advance of the Union army found at Cane Hill 
the equipment of a small printing office in a log cabin 
at the edge of the town. The type was scattered over 
the floor and in the yard, and the press was in pieces 
and parts of it had been destroyed. When the Eleventh 
Kansas arrived it camped about the cabin, and Major 
Plumb took charge of the newspaper plant. It had 
been in use in the Cherokee Nation, and was sent to 
Cane Hill when the war began. The type was about 
equally divided between English and Cherokee charac- 
ters. Plumb called to his aid a number of Kansas news- 
paper men, Crawford, Ross, and others. They patiently 
assorted the type, enough of which remained to set up 
a small paper. The large type had been carried off by 
the soldiers who first discovered it, and there was not 
enough left for a title-head. After cutting one letter 
from a block of wood, the name of the proposed paper 
was set up — Buck & Ball. This name described the 
charge of the ancient guns with which the Eleventh was 
armed, three buckshot and a seventy-two caliber ball. 
The motto adopted was an exclamation of John H. 
Kitts, a soldier of the Eleventh, a peculiar character, 
a Yankee, a good printer, and one of the compositors 
on the paper, and was " Kansas is Pisen to the Hull on 
'em." Another of his expressions is given, "Caliber 
72 — Gives the Rebels H— 1." * 



i A Baptist missionary. Jones, established the Jones Mission 

among the Cherokecs a few miles west of Cincinnati, Arkansas, about 

126 



BUCK & BALL 127 

Six columns were set and the forms made up for one 
side of the paper, which had been made to conform to 
the size of the army foolscap, the only supply of paper 
available. Capital letters were few and proper names 
did not always have them. Sometimes italic letters 
were, of necessity, used with others. The old press was 
tinkered to the point where it could be used, and fif- 
teen hundred copies printed on one side. Great inge- 
nuity was exercised in getting a supply of paper. All 
the foolscap the Eleventh had or could get was used. 
Some wall paper was found, and that was worked off. 
Just as the last sheets were being printed Major Plumb 
was ordered to the front, to the top of Reed's Mountain, 
where he helped hold the Confederate army in check on 
the 6th. 

On the 7th as he passed through Cane Hill he looked 
in on the printing office. There was the half-printed 
edition on the floor. He rolled the sheets into a bundle 
which he tied with a cord. As he reached the door an 
ambulance came by, the last to leave. Plumb threw the 
bundle into the ambulance and went on with his regi- 
ment. About the third day after the battle of Prairie 
Grove, when the regiment was back at Cane Hill, he 
went in search of his paper and found it in the ambu- 
lance. An account of the battle of Prairie Grove was 



1832. He taught the Indians, principally full-blood Cherokees, anti- 
slavery sentiments. When one was converted to the belief against 
slavery he was given a pin or badge to wear. These were known as 
" Tin " Indians, often mentioned in the annals of the Civil War. 
This is the origin of the name. 

At this mission there was printed an edition of the Bible in the 
Cherokee language. When the Civil War began these missionaries 
could not remain in the Cherokee Nation, and they returned north. 
They were in debt to merchants at Cane Hill, and they hauled the 
press, type, forms, and other appliances of their office to that town 
and turned them over to the merchants as security for the debts. 
That is how it came that riuinb found a press and printing material 
at Cane Hill. 

Sequoyah, possibly the greatest Indian that ever lived, worked as 
a printer at the Mission. He was a Pin Indian. 



128 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

written, as were some editorials, and these were put in 
type; forms for the other side were made np, and the 
paper was run off. The first and fourth pages were 
printed first, being dated December 6, 1862. The sec-' 
ond and third pages were printed in the last impres- 
sion, and contain an account of the battle and other oc-, 
currences on the 7th and later. It was the intention to 
continue the publication, but General Schofield doubted 
the propriety of so doing, and only the one number was 
issued. 

The paper is valuable for various reasons. It con- 
tains excellent accounts of the battles and movements 
in which the Eleventh took part. It is a striking ex- 
ample of the intelligence and enterprise of the Union 
soldiers. In almost every regiment were machinists, 
printers, and mechanics of all trades. Shops for the 
manufacture of any commodity could have been supplied 
with competent workmen. The Confederate soldier 
was generally a farmer and without knowledge of me- 
chanical arts. The editorials written by Major Pluml 
were good — as true to-day as when penned. One oi 
them is given: 

Eighteen months ago Western Arkansas was prosperous with 
peace and plenty. The sounds that met the ear were those oi 
lowing herds in the valley, the ring of the woodsman's axe on the 
hills, and childhood's innocent sport in the groves. The sights 
that greeted the vision were the fields of growing grain ; and the 
comfortable cabin or more pretentious mansion, on the hill-side 
the abode of domestic virtue and happiness. An intelligent, in- 
dustrious people were enjoying the fruits of their toil in the 
security and peace guaranteed to them by the mild and benefi- 
cent government under which they lived. 

But the leading men of Arkansas drew the State after then* 
into the vortex of rebellion — the people at large condemning the 
sentiment but offering no resistance. The effect is now visible 
everywhere. Contending armies have crossed and recrossed, ant 
where they have passed nothing has grown. Desolation has fol- 
lowed in their track. The sounds of war are in the valleys anc 
on all the hills. Scarce a fireside circle that does not mourr 



BUCK & BALL 129 

some one of its number slain in battle. The substance of the 
country goes to support the armies, while Avomen and children 
suffer with hunger and cold. And the end is not yet ! So long 
as the rebellion lasts, the misery and horrors of war will go on 
multiplying and increasing. The Union army is increasing in 
numbers, efficiency and determination each day. It is gradually 
overrunning the South, and within another twelve months its 
armies, contracting the circle which they have now formed, will 
meet on the banks of the Mississippi and Arkansas and in the 
center of the cotton States. 

Men of Western Arkansas ! Most of you went into this rebel- 
lion against your own convictions! Will you continue in it to 
your own utter ruin, and that of your country ? You have it in 
your power to bring peace back to your borders. Unite with 
the Union Army in driving out those who are in arms against the 
Government, and you can then return in peace to your homes. 
If you do not the Government must continue to treat you as its 
enemies. Your choice is between peace and war — peace in the 
Union and war against it. Choose ye ! 2 

2 The only known copy of this paper is in the library of Mrs. P. B. 
Plumb. 



CHAPTER XXII 

VAN BUREN 

That Hindman was making efforts, after the battle 
of Prairie Grove, to rally his demoralized forces in West- 
ern Arkansas, was known to General Blunt, who decided 
to attack him at Van Buren and Fort Smith and dis- 
perse his army. The details of the forward movement 
were arranged on Christmas night at a conference be- 
tween Blunt and Herron. At three o'clock on the morn- 
ing of the 27th, two columns marched on Van Buren, 
— General Herron from Prairie Grove over the Wire 
Boad; and General Blunt from Rhea's Mills, by the 
road down Cove Creek. 

The snow on the Boston Mountains was melting. 
The different streams forming Cove Creek flow down 
from these mountains, and it was running full of ice-cold 
water. The Eleventh Kansas reached the creek about 
ten o'clock in the morning. In its course through the 
mountain defiles the stream winds across the narrow 
valley from hill to hill. In twenty miles the road crosses 
it some thirty-six times. There were no bridges, and 
the infantry were compelled lo wade it at every cross- 
ing. At first the water was little above the shoe-tops, 
but this depth increased at every ford. Early in the 
afternoon the sun sank below the mountain-tops and a 
cold wind swept up the icy gorge. At many of the 
crossings the water was waist-deep, swift as a mill-race, 
filled with ice and melting snow, and it chilled the un- 
fortunate soldiers to the marrow. The shoes of some 
of them fell to pieces in this hard usage, and those of 
all became dilapidated. The march continued far into 

130 



VAN BUREN 131 

the night. Plumb was distressed beyond measure at 
this unforeseen condition of the road and the resulting 
misery. He rode continually up and down the line en- 
couraging the men and sympathizing with them, but he 
permitted no grumbling. " He appealed to the men to 
do their duty and discharge fully every requirement, 
no matter what the hardship — otherwise their action 
was not patriotic," says one of the men who suffered on 
that fearful march. 

Late at night, passing out of the mountain gorge and 
leaving the crooked stream, the regiment camped and 
built large fires about which the men stood and dried 
their clothing. The next morning, after a rest of only 
two or three hours, they were early on the road, and ar- 
rived at Van Buren but little behind the cavalry. 

The advance of General Blunt's army met the Con- 
federate pickets in force three miles below the mouth 
of Cove Creek, and pursued them six miles to Dripping 
Springs. There, on the north side of a hill and west of 
the road, was found a brigade of Texas cavalry, an out- 
post of Hindman's army. This force was charged anil 
scattered, and it passed panic-stricken through Van 
Buren, eight miles distant. Those who had time to do 
so boarded a ferry-boat to cross over to Hindman's camp, 
and the others scatered along the north bank. 

General Blunt arrived soon. He saw three steam- 
boats just leaving the Van Buren landing, and sent 
troops to capture them. They were loaded with Con- 
federate supplies. These, and another boat found there, 
were burned, together with most of their lading. 

Plumb and the surgeon of his regiment were among 
the first to enter Van Buren after the charging cavalry. 
As they walked along a street near the river, a battery 
on the other side opened on the town. The first shots 
fell near them. General Blunt ordered his artillery to 
hurry forward. In half an hour one of the batteries 
came through the streets of Van Buren on a swift gal- 



132 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

lop. The guns were placed in position and soon silenced 
the Confederate battery. 

This action was decisive. The Confederates made 
little resistance and the engagement completed the rout 
of Hindman's army. Without rations and ammuni- 
tion, it retreated down the Arkansas River. Much 
suffering resulted. Rain and snow soaked the roads 
and chilled the men. Desertions increased, as many as 
six hundred men leaving in one day. Some ten days 
after the action at Van Buren, the miserable remnant 
of Hindman's splendid army reached Little Rock, where 
it was quartered in the buildings of the penitentiary. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

CHIEF OF STAFF 

From Van Buren the army returned to Rhea's Mills. 
There General Blunt was succeeded by General Scho- 
field, who moved to Elm Springs, twelve miles north of 
Fayetteville. Late in January, 1SG3, a campaign against 
Little Rock, by way of Batesville, was planned, but it 
was not carried out. After marching about thirty miles 
east from Elm Springs, the army was ordered north to 
the vicinity of Springfield, Mo. Rain and snow al- 
ternated for many days. White River was running 
high when reached at a point near the Missouri line. 
It is a large swift stream, and it seemed that no way 
would be found to get the army over it. Colonel Ewing 
ordered Plumb to establish a ferry. In his retreat 
from Missouri General Sterling Price had fastened a long 
chain across the road, at Cross Hollows, to delay the 
pursuit of General Siegel. Plumb had seen this chain, 
and it now occurred to him to utilize it. While his men 
were bringing lumber for boats from a mountain mill, 
he had the chain brought up and stretched across the 
river. By ropes and pulleys, the boats, now completed, 
were attached to the chain, making a safe and commo- 
dious ferry by which the army was put over the stream. 1 

iThe chain was brought from England. It was wrapped around 
the trees and so securely fastened that it took Plumb's men some 
time to cut it loose. Colonel William Weer, Tenth Kansas, was try- 
ing to put his regiment over White River in wagon-beds wrapped 
with tarpaulins when the Eleventh Kansas arrived at the crossing. 
Colonel Weer's plan was a failure, and Colonel Ewing said Plumb 
could build a ferry by the next day, which he did, completing it in 
ten hours. 

133 



134 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

The Eleventh Kansas camped at Crane Creek, thirty 
miles south of Springfield, where there was a heavy 
mortality from measles and other diseases. Gloom i 
fell on the camp, which was afterwards spoken off 
as " The Valley of the Shadow of Death." From this 
point the Eleventh moved to Camp Solomon, in Law-, 
rence County, fifty miles west of Springfield. On the 
17th of March it was ordered to Forsyth, Mo., where ai 
Confederate force was supposed to be operating, but at, 
the crossing of James Biver it was learned that the 
enemy had disappeared. General Schofield ordered all 
Kansas troops of the First Division to Fort Scott, where, 
on the 27th of March, they were given a furlough for 
thirty days and allowed to visit their homes. 

In the meantime Ewing had been made a Brigadier- 
General. Moonlight was promoted to the rank of 
Colonel and Plumb to Lieutenant-Colonel. On the reas- 
sembling of the Eleventh at Fort Scott it was sent ted 
Salem, Mo. From there the Second and Third Divi- 
sions, Army of the Frontier, were sent to Vicksburg, 
and the cavalry sent to Southeast Missouri. General 
Ewing was given command of the District of the Bor- 
der, which included a part of Western Missouri and 
most of Kansas. The Eleventh marched to Washing- 
ton, Mo., where it took boat for Kansas City. 

Upon the return of the army from Van Buren, Major 
Plumb was appointed on a General Court-martial of 
thirteen officers, which organized at Fayetteville, Jan- 
uary 1, 18G3. Colonel Samuel J. Crawford was a mem- 
ber, and Colonel Thompson, of an Iowa regiment, wag 
elected president. This Court held sessions at Fayette- 
ville, riuntersville, Cassville, Totten's Headquarters, and 
Springfield. Many cases were heard and disposed of. 
and the Court adjourned at Springfield on the 13th ol 
March. Plumb impressed the Court with his industry 
his common sense, and his capacity for work. He was 
strict in his findings but just and humane. During this 



CHIEF OF STAFF 135 

time Plumb was with his regiment only occasionally — 
on the march from riuntsville and once or twice at the 
camp on Crane Creek. 

Because of the loss of men in battle and from sick- 
ness the Eleventh was reduced below the minimum, and 
on that account the promoted officers could not be mus- 
tered into their new positions for some time. At Kan- 
sas City General Ewing made Major Plumb his Chief -of- 
Staff. 

As a reward for the splendid service the Eleventh 
had rendered, General Schofield ordered it mounted and 
changed from infantry to cavalry. Plumb had much to 
do in securing this change. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

THE DISTRICT OF THE BOEDER 

TnE State of Kansas north of the thirty-eighth paral- 
lel, and the two western tiers of counties of Missouri 
north of the same parallel and south of the Missouri 
River constituted the District of the Border. 1 

General Ewing reached Leavenworth June 15, and 
assumed command at Kansas City a day or two later. 
His task was an arduous one. The eighty-five miles of 
border-line running straight south from his headquar- 
ters had been little less than a battle-line for the pre- 
ceding eight years. In 1855 the Missourians had 
crossed it by thousands to compel the Kansas people 
to obey the Bogus Laws. Invasions had occurred be- 
fore that date, and they had continued up to the arrival 
of General Ewing. The border wars had never wholly 
ceased. Except in Linn County, Kansas, there had been 
no disposition to cross the line into Missouri, and there 
the provocation had been great. Up to 1801 Kansas had 
suffered much at the hands of Missouri — her towns 
had been sacked, her homes desolated, and her citizens 
slain. In fact, the war had raged seven years in Kan- 



i Vol. XXII, Part II, p. 315, Rebellion Records. The area included 
in Kansas was about 52.000 square miles, and in Missouri about 4.S00 
square miles. The Missouri portion of the District included the 
counties of Jackson, Lafayette, Cass, Johnson. Bates, Henry, and 
parts of Vernon and St. Clair. The District was. from east to west, 
four hundred and sixty miles long. In Kansas it was, from north to 
south, one hundred and thirty-five miles wide. In Missouri the 
District embraced a territory eighty-five miles from north to south 
and sixty miles from east to west. 

13G 



THE DISTRICT OF TIIE BORDER 137 

sas before it spread to the other parts of the Union, and 
through it all Kansas had stood on the defensive. 

Now that the old foes of Kansas were the foes of the 
Union and in open rebellion against it, opportunity 
came for settling old scores. The Federal Government, 
which had stood back of Missouri in the fifties, now be- 
came the bulwark of loyal Kansas. The old order of 
things was reversed. The Missourian who desired to 
fight regularly for the Confederacy had to follow Price 
out of the State to do it. Almost every voter in Kansas, 
and many not yet of voting age, enlisted in the armies 
:>f the Union. In expelling the armed Confederates 
from Missouri these Kansas soldiers bore their part, 
and it cannot be denied that they did it willingly and 
■well. In Missouri there remained many who were dis- 
loyal. Various causes prevented their enlistment and 
continuous service in the Confederate army, the desire 
:o engage in the irregular and unrestrained warfare of 
;he guerrilla being uppermost. In that mode of oppo- 
sition to the Union forces private revenge could be taken 
md the property of the helpless seized. Men without 

he courage to become soldiers in the Confederate arm- 
ies formed armed bands for murder and robbery. Of 

hem it was truthfully said: 

During the war they became guerrillas and bush whackers under 
'rice, Anderson and Quantrill; assassins; thugs; poisoners of 
fells ; murderers of captive women and children ; sackers of de- 
enseless towns; house-burners; horse-thieves; perpetrators of 
.trocities that would make the blood of Sepoys run cold. 2 

Their pretext was that of protecting their homes, al- 
though but for their presence and persistent perpetra- 
ion of barbarous and bloody deeds their homes would 
lave been in little danger. They quartered themselves 
m the disloyal and such of the loyal as they did not de- 



2 Ingalls, in " Catfish Aristocracy." 



138 THE LIFE OF PKESTON B. PLUMB 



spoil and murder. From brakes and coverts they at 
tacked small bodies of Federal soldiers passing from 
post to post, scouts, lonely dwellings, transportation 
trains, unimportant villages — anything and every- 
thing where there was little danger to themselves and 
opportunity for bloodshed and spoil. These bands ha 
the full and unreserved support and approval of Con 
federate officers, who regularly mustered them into th 
Confederate armies, and with whom they co-operate 
as occasion favored. Their operations never contribute 
anything to the success of the Confederate cause, neve 
imperiled any material Union post or position, never 
did any good for themselves or anyone else, but did d 
immeasurable harm to themselves, their cause, their 
families, and their native State. The Federal Govern- 
ment was lenient and long-suffering in its attitude 
toward them, but their constant and increasing barbar- 
ity forced the Union to sweep their country with fire 
and sword as the only adequate means for their sup- 
pression. 

The chief of these marauders was Quantrill, a rene 
gade Ohioan. His bloody deeds shocked the world; but 
even that did not meet the demands of the disloyal ele- 
ment in Missouri; he was dethroned, and Todd, more 
brutal and diabolic, was elevated to his place. Quan- 
trill had no love for the Confederacy ; but Todd's devo- 
tion to it was fanatical. Bill Anderson had all the 
bloody attributes of Todd, but was made of baser clay 
and possessed lower instincts. In the District of the 
Border were also a score of lesser guerrilla captains, 
Parker, the Youngers, and others, all bent on the mur- 
der of Missouri Union men whether soldiers or no 
combatants, and with a thirst for robbery which it too 
the law thirty years to quench after the war was over, 

When General Ewing assumed command of the Dis 
trict of the Border he found his Missouri counties over 
run with this banditti. It lurked in every thicket and 



THE DISTRICT OP THE BORDER 139 

prowled around every outpost. It crossed the border- 
line and sacked helpless villages in Kansas, and, return- 
ing to Missouri fastnesses, left a trail of blood and ruin. 
The conditions were greatly aggravated by the presence 
in Kansas of sordid and unpatriotic men, who, as Gen- 
eral Ewing said, were preying on the misery of Missouri 
and stealing themselves rich in the name of liberty. 

This warfare was not wholly between Kansas and the 
people of Missouri. Indeed, it had its deepest bitter- 
ness between the people of Missouri themselves, neigh- 
bor against neighbor. Of those who remained at home, 
or who returned after a temporary service, the sympa- 
thizers with the Confederacy far outnumbered those 
who loved the Old Flag. These latter were almost all 
expelled or murdered by the former. Of those who fled 
from home the majority went to Kansas, where they 
either enlisted in Kansas regiments, or sought favor- 
able occasions to visit their old homes with arms in 
their hands to even up former differences with, neigh- 
bors. There were many Missourians in every Kansas 
regiment. In every county in Missouri the loyal men 
enlisted in the Union army. These soldiers, whether 
in Missouri or Kansas regiments, were far more bitter 
towards their former neighbors and fellow-citizens than 
were the Kansans. They were nearly always moved by 
personal grievances. 

Up to June, 18G3, much of the hard and thankless 
task of repressing the guerrillas in the Missouri portion 
of the District of the Border had devolved on Colonel 
William R, Penick, with his regiment, the Fifth Mis- 
souri. He was stationed at Independence and was a 
brave and capable officer, a tireless worker, a hard rider, 
and the heads of the guerrillas and their sympathizers 
were given many a hard knock. Some semblance of 

: order was maintained and the bushwhackers held in 
check, though his force was wholly inadequate for the 

1 work assigned him. Many of the disloyal pretended 



140 THE LIFE OF PKESTON B. PLUMB 

to be Union men in order to secure protection and to 
spy more effectively on the Union troops in the interest 
of the guerrillas. This element raised a great outcry 
against Penick, accusing him of cruelty and the crimes 
of which the guerrillas were guilty. They deceived the 
Federal authorities and the Provisional Government of 
Missouri. The Fifth Missouri was ordered to be mus- 
tered out of the service, and for that purpose it went I 
by boat to St. Joseph, passing General Ewing at Fort, 
Leavenworth on the 16th of June. 

When General Ewing had looked over his field he 
was appalled at the conditions and the magnitude of 
the task assigned him. On the 20th of June he wrote 
General Schofield that the whole border thirty miles 
into Kansas was greatly disturbed, and that it would 
take little more than the present demonstration of! 
guerrillas to stampede the whole country. 

Three gangs of bushwhackers in Cass and Jackson 
counties had already grown formidable since the re- 
moval of Colonel Penick's regiment. Yager and his 
band of outlaws had, in May, ridden west over the 
Santa Fe Trail beyond Council Grove, committing many 
robberies and murders, and had returned to Missouri 
with small loss. General Ewing found awaiting him 
an urgent demand for six companies of cavalry to pro- 
tect the country along the Santa Fe Trail as far west 
as Larned, and while he recognized the justice of the 
request, he had no troops to spare for the purpose. 3 
The guerrillas killed four Union men and one girl, and 
wounded nine, in a German settlement near Lexington 
on the 14th of July. 4 After the removal of the Fifth 
Missouri, guerrillas crowded up to the bounds of Kan- 
sas City. Citizens were murdered and their homes 
burned almost daily in Jackson County, and conditions 



s See correspondence between Ewing and Schofield, Vol. XXII, 
Part II, p. 341, et. scq., Rebellion Records. 
* Id. p. 307. 



TIIE DISTRICT OF THE BORDEE 141 

were worse in the outlying" portions of the District. 
General Ewing wrote, on August 3d, that : 

About one-half tho farmers in the border tier of counties of 
Missouri in my District, at different times since the war began, 
entered the rebel service. One-half of them are dead or still in 
the service; the other half, quitting from time to time the rebel 
armies, have returned to those counties. Unable to live at their 
homes if they would, they have gone to bushwhacking, and 
have driven almost all avowed Unionists out of the country or to 
the military stations. And now, sometimes in bands of several 
hundred, they scour the country, robbing and killing those they 
think unfriendly to them, and threatening the settlements of the 
Kansas border and the towns and stations in Missouri. 5 

Continuing, General Ewing said that about two- 
thirds of the families on the occupied farms of that re- 
gion were related to the guerrillas, and were actively 
and heartily engaged in feeding, clothing, and sus- 
taining them. The physical character of the land 
greatly favored guerrilla w r arfare, and the presence there 
of the families caused the presence of the guerrillas. 
It was impossible to clear the country of them as long 
as the families remained, and General Ewing proposed 
and was granted permission, to send the families of the 
most active guerrillas out of his District to some point 
in Arkansas accessible by steamboat, there to remain 
until the war ended. This was the inception of Order 
No. 11. 

One of the class responsible for the conditions which 
General Ewing found confronting him was a certain 
B. F. Parker, a Colonel in the Confederate army, but 
now returned and roaming at the head of a band of 
bushwhackers in Johnson County. He issued a proc- 
lamation, June 10, 1863, instructing his men to murder 
all prisoners taken from the Union armies, and saying 
that he had himself " executed " one Major and four 

s Id. p. 428. 



142 THE LIFE OF PKESTON B. PLUMB 

privates in retaliation for the hanging of Jim Vaughan 
at Kansas City, May 29, after trial by court-martial 
for murdering Union men. 6 Parker was killed at Well- 
ington, Mo., about the middle of July, but his proclama- 
tion was faithfully obeyed by all the guerrilla bands. 
In fact, it was the practice of the guerrillas to murder 
all prisoners long before the public announcement made 
by Parker. 

On July 3d General Ewing addressed the citizens 
of Olathe. The policy he announced was just. But the 
address was unfortunate in that it was taken by the 
guerrillas to indicate that General Ewing intended to 
make greater efforts to prevent Kansas people from mak- 
ing reprisals in Missouri than to suppress the guerrilla 
bands. These outlaws became bolder and their num- 
bers increased day by day. Commenting on the Olathe 
address, Quantrill said : " Ewing commands the Dis- 
trict, but I run the machine." In July a reign of terror- 
existed in Johnson County, Mo., and widows knowing 
who had murdered their husbands were afraid to give 
the authorities any information. In the southern por- 
tion of the District a condition of anarchy had followed 
the removal of the Fifth Missouri. 

The forces under General Ewing were insufficient; for 
the requirements of the District. Cavalry was needed, 
and on the 11th of July General Schofield ordered that 
the Eleventh Kansas be mounted and changed from in- 
fantry to cavalry. But there were no carbines for the 
regiment and it was necessary for the men to retain for 
a time their unwieldy old muskets. 

On the 31st of July General Ewing had present for 
duty in the District of the Border one hundred and two 
officers and twenty-five hundred and forty-six men. 
With this small force he was expected to garrison and 
patrol, battle over and protect nearly sixty thousand 



fi See issues of Kansas City Journal, May 30 and June 27. 1863. 






THE DISTRICT OP THE BOEDER 143 

square miles of territory, including an Indian frontier 
of vast extent, the supply-line from Fort Leavenworth 
to Fort Scott for General Blunt's District of the Fron- 
tier, and one hundred miles of bloody border-line. 
General Ewing's plans for guarding the border were the 
best that could be made with the troops at his disposal. 
To prevent the invasion of Kansas he established posts 
or stations on and along the State-line south of Kansas 
City to the limits of his District. 

These stations were usually about twelve miles apart, 
and were: 

Westport; six miles out. 

Shawnee Mission; three miles from Westport. 

Little Santa Fe; ten miles south of Westport; com- 
manded by Captain Charles F. Coleman, Company D, 
Ninth Kansas, with his company and a detachment of 
Company M, Fifth Kansas Cavalry, in all, about eighty 
men. 

Aubry; twelve miles south of Little Santa Fe; com- 
manded by Captain J. A. Pike, Company K, Ninth Kan- 
sas, with his own company and Company D, Eleventh 
Kansas ; both companies made a force of about one hun- 
dred men. 

Coldwater Grove; thirteen miles south of Aubry; 
commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Charles S. Clark, 
Ninth Kansas, with Company E, of his own regiment. 
All the troops south of Little Santa Fe, in the District 
of the Border, were under the immediate command of 
Colonel Clark. 

Rockville; thirteen miles south of Coldwater Grove; 
commander and number of men not found. 

Trading Post ; on the Marais des Cygnes, fifteen miles 
south of Rockville; Captain B. F. Goss, Company F, 
Ninth Kansas. 

Barnesville ; in north part of Bourbon County ; a gar- 
rison of one or two companies, but not shown in the 
returns. 



144 THE LIFE OF FKESTON B. TLUMB 

Patrols were to pass constantly from post to post, at 
hourly intervals. Important information was to be 
passed along by a line of couriers to headquarters at 
Kansas City. If a hostile force appeared it was to be 
pursued instantly, and if too large to be attacked by 
the pursuers, help was to be summoned from other posts. 
Couriers were to be sent to alarm the Kansas border 
towns, where the defense was mainly composed of militia 
quartered usually in their own homes and sometimes 
difficult to assemble. 



CHArTER XXV 

COLLAPSE OF TriE MILITARY TRISON 

The most unfortunate event in the administration of 
General Ewing was the Lawrence Massacre. An inci- 
dent which was responsible for many of the barbarities 
committed in the sacking of that defenseless town was 
the collapse at Kansas City of the military prison for 
women. It was made the excuse for many inhuman 
crimes later committed by the guerrillas. 

In the midst of such conditions as existed in the Dis- 
trict of the Border it was inevitable that women should 
become spies for the bushwhackers and commit other 
violations of military regulations. Women had been 
arrested before General Ewing's arrival. On the 26th 
of June a number of prisoners were sent from Fort 
Leavenworth to Kansas City, among them ten women, 
two of whom were sisters of Jim Vaughan, the outlaw 
executed May 29th. These women were treated with 
great consideration, being quartered at the Union Hotel 
under guard. 

When Bill Anderson found it necessary to leave his 
home at Council Grove in the night on a stolen horse 
in the spring of 1862 to escape punishment for various 
crimes, he sought the border and there engaged in in- 
discriminate robbery. He was arrested and disarmed 
by Quantrill for preying on Confederate sympathizers. 
After his release he was in a way subject to Quantrill 
until that outlaw was repudiated by his followers. An- 
derson removed his sisters from Kansas and for a year 
they lived on the border, stopping finally with the Mun- 

145 



146 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

day family on the Missouri side of the line near Little 
Santa Fe. Both parents of this family were dead, one 
son was in Price's army, and three daughters were at 
home — Sue Munday, Martha (or Matt) Munday, and 
Mrs. Lou Munday Gray, — whose husband probably was 
a bushwhacker. The Munday girls and the three Ander- 
son sisters were arrested as spies. On the same day 
others were arrested, among them, a Miss Hall, Mollie 
Grandstaff, Charity Kerr, Mrs. Nannie Harris Mc- 
Corlde, Mrs. Sue Vandiver and Mrs. Arminna Selvey, 
the two latter being daughters of William Crawford, 
who, by marriage, was the uncle of Cole Younger. 
There were other arrests, but it is not known how many 
women were imprisoned when the building in which 
they were quartered collapsed. Among them, however, 
was Miss Alice Van Ness, whose daughter, Fay Temple- 
ton, achieved fame as an actress. 

The Union Hotel could not accommodate such a num- 
ber of prisoners, and to those already quartered there 
were now added the newcomers. G. M. Walker, of Com- 
pany C, Eleventh Kansas, was Sergeant of the Guard 
when the prisoners were brought in. He took them to 
the prison for men, but they refused to enter this build- 
ing even when shown that their apartments were entirely 
separated from those of the men. Then a frame build- 
ing on the west side of Main Street, between Ninth and 
Tenth Streets, one story in front and two stories in the 
rear, and with a porch, was prepared for them. It was 
with difficulty that they were made to enter this build- 
ing, the Anderson girls being the leaders in abuse of the 
Union, its soldiers, generally, and those at Kansas City 
in particular. There was a three-story brick building 
on the east side of Grand Avenue, in McGee's Addi- 
tion, between Fourteenth and Fifteenth Streets, on each 
side of which were two-story buildings in the second story 
of which men formerly had been imprisoned. It was 
No. 1409, Grand Avenue. That part of the city was at 



COLLAPSE OF THE MILITARY PRISON 147 

the time little settled, there being no buildings in the 
block opposite on the west side of the avenue, which was 
then the main thoroughfare to Westport. This build- 
ing had a frontage of about twenty-five feet. The stair- 
way to the second floor, from the front, and all access to 
the third story had been permanently closed. An old 
Jew had a store of cheap goods on the first floor — a 
medley of merchandise, including flashy jewelry, cloth- 
ing, groceries, and liquors. The second floor was 
reached only by an outside stairway in the rear of the 
building. 1 

The second floor of the building was the prison. 
There were three rooms, in one of which was segregated 
one, possibly two, women of known bad character, the 
other prisoners refusing to speak to them, though they 
were QuantrilFs trusted spies. The women separated 
into groups, which, if not hostile, were indifferent, and 
between which there was little communication. The 
first guard was a detail from the Twelfth Kansas and 
was strict with the women. Major Plumb had the guard 
changed. Those who would pledge their word that they 
would not try to escape were permitted to visit stores 
accompanied by a guard under orders to remain back 
far enougk so that the prisoners could converse without 
being overheard. The Captain of the Guard was 
Frank Parker, Company C, Eleventh Kansas. 2 

There were friendships between members of the 
guard and officers at headquarters and some of the 
women, and it is even asserted that a soldier of Com- 
pany I, Eleventh Kansas, married one of the prisoners. 
Parker sent to Little Santa Fe for the bedding of the 

i There is a conflict in the statements of those who remember the 
building. Some say it was but two stories in height, and Mrs. Sue 
Womack, one of the women imprisoned there, says the entrance from 
the front had not been closed. With one exception it is agreed that 
it was on the east side of the street and fronted west. 

2 On September 19, 1910, he made a statement to the author on 
this subject. 



148 THE LIFE OP PRESTON B. PLUMB 

Munday home to be used by the Munday and Anderson 
girls. Cards and musical instruments were provided, 
and sometimes officers from headquarters visited the 
prison in the evening and were entertained with music. 
It is established beyond question that these women were 
treated with respect and kindness. 

On the day of the collapse of this building Lieuten- 
ant John M. Singer, Company H, Ninth Kansas, was 
Captain of the Provost Guard. Early in the day the 
Captain of the guard at the building sent a request to 
Singer to examine it, saying that he feared it was no 
longer safe. Singer found the walls cracked and mor- 
tar-dust on the ground. He reported to General Ewing, 
who sent his Adjutant to examine the building. The 
Adjutant believed the building safe, but the Captain of 
the Guard was uneasy. When the prisoners had been 
given their dinner he requested Thomas Barber, a mem- 
ber of his company, to examine the prison. Barber's 
recollection is that there were prisoners on both the 
second and third floors, and that he and Parker went to 
the third floor. He saw the walls slowly separating 
from the ceiling, and advised Parker to get the women 
out of the building with all haste. Parker shouted: 
" Get out of here ! This building is going to fall ! " 
Barber, some of the women, and one or two guards ran 
down the stairs, and as they reached the ground the 
building collapsed, falling inward. 

A great cloud of dust arose from the wreck, and for 
an instant nothing could be done. Soon some of the 
uninjured crawled from the ruins. A courier was at 
once sent to headquarters, and Major Plumb hurried 
to the prison. A crowd of five thousand people assem- 
bled. The women were in a state of excitement, were 
abusing the Government and the Union troops, and as- 
serting that the building had been undermined with 
intent to kill them. The crowd was in sympathy with 
them and jeered the guard. Major Plumb ordered up 



COLLAPSE OF THE MILITARY TRISON 149 

other troops and threw a cordon about the premises. 
He ordered the troops to fix bayonets and force a num- 
ber of citizens to help rescue the wounded and bring 
out the dead. The uninjured were sent to the Union 
Hotel, where they were guarded until another house 
could be made ready for them. The wounded were 
taken to the military hospital, where a ward was given 
them. The names of four of the dead are now remem- 
bered: Charity Kerr, Mrs. Vandiver, Mrs. Selvey, and 
Josephine Anderson. 3 

The charge that the Federal soldiers undermined this 
prison was absurd. There never was a particle of evi- 
dence to support it. When asked why she believed the 
building had been undermined Mrs. Womack (Sue 
Munday) said, " I know it was, because I saw the sol- 
diers going into the Jew's store as thick as bees all 
day." 

This was the only circumstance she could mention to 
support her declaration. There is perhaps no doubt 
about the soldiers having gone into the store, but the 
fact that the proprietor was permitted to sell liquors 
might account for their visits. And the Jew was caught 
in the collapse and injured. If he had known of any 
intention to wreck the building he would not have been 
there, and no mining could have been carried on in his 
room without his knowledge. On what date the build- 
ing fell has not been established, but it was about two 
weeks before the Lawrence Massacre, and was made one 
of the excuses for that horrible affair. 

The charge that this prison was undermined was 
taken up by the guerrillas all along the border. Re- 



s The statement of Mrs. Womack says Mrs. Vandiver and Mrs. 
Selvey were killed. Charity Kerr was a cousin of Cole Younger. 
In his Quantrill and the Border Wars the author, following Cole 
Younger's autobiography, included Nannie Harris among those killed. 
Her sister, Mrs. Eliza Deal, now living in Kansas City, Kansas, 
says that Nannie Harris was not injured. 



150 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

venge was the cry. Retaliation was demanded. Quan- 
trill, planning, threatening, cajoling, persuading, never 
could have induced the guerrillas to undertake the raid 
on Lawrence but for the collapse of this building. It 
came at an opportune time in his career and he made 
the most of it. 






CHAPTER XXVI 

THE LAWRENCE MASSACRE 

The flood in the tide of the Confederacy came in July, 
1863, and the recession which followed in the same 
month indicated that the secession movement would end 
in failure. When Vicksburg fell and Lee was defeated 
at Gettysburg the Southern cause was lost. And along 
the border the guerrillas reached their greatest strength 
in the summer of 1863. In the waning of the Confed- 
eracy much of its Western force abandoned the field 
and returned home. Great accession to the guerrilla 
ranks resulted. In July Quantrill saw that by com- 
bining the forces of the border captains enough men 
could be assembled for a master-stroke. They were 
called together and a plan proposed, but nothing was 
done beyond calling another meeting. In the meantime 
the military prison for women had collapsed. In Au- 
gust when the guerrilla chiefs gathered at the rendez- 
vous, Quantrill, by the skillful use of that unfortunate 
occurrence, succeeded in enlisting them in his design to 
destroy Lawrence. 

Lawrence had been the chief locality of resistance 
to the plan of the South to make Kansas a slave State. 
Kansas had won her freedom, which had, in effect, de- 
stroyed slavery. This was the prime cause for the ha- 
tred of Kansas, and made it the refuge for many of the 
loyal citizens exiled by Missouri. Lawrence had been 
the principal point of attack in the old wars waged by 
the Missourians, many of whom were in the bushwhacker 
bands in 1863. The former bitterness remained, and 

151 



152 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

it could be more easily fanned to a flame than could the 
general animosity against the State or against any other 
town. 

In his designs against Lawrence Quantrill was but 
playing a part. His implacability was a personal mat- 
ter. In 1860 he had lived at Lawrence under the as- 
sumed name of " Charley Hart," where he led a double 
life and was guilty of many crimes. He was both Bor- 
der-Ruffian and abolitionist. Pretending to be engaged 
in securing passengers for the Underground Railroad, 
he was a kidnapper of free negroes whom he sold into 
bondage in Missouri. Entrusted with the care of es- 
caped slaves, he returned them to their masters for re- 
wards. Being high in the councils of a band of thieves, 
he invaded Missouri for the purpose of robbery. Tak- 
ing advantage of conditions, he despoiled Pro-Slavery 
residents in Kansas of their horses and cattle. Such 
a course can run only for a limited time, and in due 
season Quantrill found himself under indictment at 
Lawrence for robbery and arson. It became necessary 
for him to seek other fields, in doing which he conceived 
and executed a plot to betray and murder some of his 
associates. Under pretext of obtaining thirty slaves 
to be sent over the Underground Railroad from Kansas 
to Canada, he induced some young anti-slavery enthu- 
siasts of Atchison County to accompany him in a foray 
against Morgan Walker, a planter and slaveholder in 
Jackson County, Mo. There he betrayed his compan- 
ions to death, at least one of whom he murdered with 
his own hands. He remained with the Missourians and 
rose to be chief of the border-guerrillas. In this ca- 
pacity he had sacked Aubry and Shawnee and had plun- 
dered Olathe and other Kansas towns. 1 

That the border might feel some sense of security and 
the Federal troops relax somewhat the severity of their 



i For mi extended account of tho life and operations of Quantrill, 
see Quantrill and the Border Wars, by this author. 



THE LAWRENCE MASSACRE 153 

patrol of the State-line, Quantrill contented himself 
by spreading disquieting- rumors and doing little in that 
region for some weeks. The last invasion of the coun- 
try in Kansas adjacent to that through which he pro- 
posed to pass was made by Bill Anderson on the 31st 
of July. On the high land south of Argentine, Wyan- 
dotte County, at a cross-roads known as " the Junction," 
lived one Saviers, whose son, Al. Saviers, was a noto- 
rious Red Leg and Jayhawker. 2 Anderson attacked the 
Saviers house, but was beaten off by the old gentleman 
and his daughters. The guerrillas then went west a 
quarter of a mile to the house of Wright Bookout and 
killed him. Two miles northwest of the Junction they 
murdered Stephen J. Payne and plundered his prem- 
ises. They went then to the house of Stephen Perkins, 
a prominent and loyal man, to kill him, but he escaped. 
After burning the Perkins house the guerrillas burned 
two other dwellings, both on the lands of Shawnee In- 
dians; after which they went up the Kansas River to 
the house where Anderson's sisters had lived and where 
he had been previously hiding. Taking the family at 
this house with them, the bushwhackers escaped to Mis- 
souri before pursuit could be made. 3 



2 The " Reel Legs " were Federal scouts on the border during the 
Civil War. The name came from the red leggings which they wore. 
(As a scourge of the border they were little inferior to Quantrill's 
guerrillas. 

The term " Jayhawker " was applied along the border at the 
beginning of the war to irregular troops and pillaging bands on both 
sides. It was accepted by some of the Kansas soldiers, and soon 
came to be the name by which all of them were known. It now 
includes all Kansas people. The origin of the name is unknown, 
that given by Wilder and Ingalls being erroneous. The name was 
in use in Texas and the West many years before Kansas was a 
Territory. 

s Major Plumb sent his brother, George Plumb, in pursuit of 
Anderson on the morning of August 1st. The guerrillas could not be 
overtaken. Thomas J. Payne, son of Stephen J. Payne, lives yet at 
Argentine and has furnished an account of this raid into Wyandotte 
County. 



154 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 



This was a daring raid. The murders were com- 
mitted within four miles of General Ewing's headquar- 
ters and inside his lines. 

The general rendezvous of the guerrillas was on the 
Blackwater, Johnson County, Mo., at the farm of Cap- 
tain Pardee. On the night of the 18th of August, every 
captain arrived there with his command. On the 19th 
the march on Lawrence began. Great caution was ob- 
served. Extensive scouting was done to detect the pres- 
ence of any Federal force. After riding ten miles 
toward Kansas, camp was made early in the afternoon. 
Here Quantrill addressed his men and told them 
where they were going. Before it was dark the 
guerrillas were again moving. South of the Little Blue 
they came upon Colonel John D. Holt, who had one hun- 
dred and four men, and he joined the expedition. At 
seven o'clock on the morning of the 20th the guerrilla 
column was on the head of the Grand River, four miles 
from the Kansas line. There the last addition to the 
guerrilla force was made, a company of fifty men join- 
ing it from points to the south. The guerrillas num- 
bered four hundred and forty-eight men, as follows: 

The original force 2P4 

Holt's command 104 

The last reinforcement 50 

Total 448 

At three o'clock in the afternoon of the 20th Quantrill 
moved toward the State-line from a dense wood in which 
he had been concealed. He crossed the line at the 
southeast corner of Johnson County, near Aubry, one 
of Ewing's posts commanded by Captain J. A. Pike, 
with about one hundred men. Here began that strange 
list of untoward circumstances which so much aided the 
guerrillas in their daring raid. Captain Pike, so the 
guerrillas assert, marched his men out on the prairie 



THE LAWRENCE MASSACRE 155 

and saw the bushwhackers ride by him into Kansas, 
lie made no effort to halt them, nor did he at once send 
a courier to alarm the other posts. He did not pursue. 
He did nothing that his position of post-commander 
required him to do, except to finally send a courier 
north. Of his conduct, General Ewing, in his official 
report, said: 

Unhappily, however, instead of setting out at once in pursuit, 
he remained at the station, and merely sent information of 
Quantrill's movement to my headquarters, and to Captain Cole- 
man, commanding two companies at Little Santa Fe, 12 miles 
north of the line. Captain Coleman, with near 100 men, 
marched at once to Aubry, and the available force of the two 
stations, numbering about 200 men, set out at midnight in pur- 
suit. But Quantrill's path was over the open prairie, and diffi- 
cult to follow at night, so that our forces gained but little on 
him. By Captain Pike's error of judgment in failing to follow 
promptly and closely, the surest means of arresting the terrible 
blow was thrown away, for Quantrill would never have gone 
as far as Lawrence, or attacked it, with 100 men close on his 
rear. 

Passing Aubry, the guerrillas dismounted and allowed 
their horses to graze an hour. Resuming their march 
at dusk they passed through Spring Hill and turned 
northwest towards Gardner, which they reached at 
eleven o'clock. Three miles west they left the Santa Fe 
Trail and marched north several miles. It was neces- 
sary to have guides, for which service the farmers were 
impressed, and when they no longer knew the roads 
they were shot, ten guides having been killed in one 
stretch of eight miles. A mile west of the Quaker set- 
tlement of Hesper the guerrillas found at home an old 
man named Stone. He was recognized by George Todd, 
who brained him with an antiquated musket. Here 
they found a young German whom they mounted be- 
hind one of their number and forced to guide them into 
Lawrence. The Wakarusa was forded at the Blue- 
Jacket Crossing, and the old Pro-Slavery town of 



15G THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

Franklin was reached at dawn on the 21st of August. 
There they were marching in columns of four, many of 
them asleep strapped to their saddles, and were counted 
by a resident physician, who found them to number 
four hundred and fifty. In coming up to the summit of 
the ridge beyond Franklin the guerrillas straggled, but 
once at the top the formation was perfected, the column 
of fours resumed, and the descent upon Lawrence, now 
in plain view, arranged. 

Gregg was sent forward with five men to enter the 
doomed town and see if it was safe for the army to fol- 
low him in. But here some of the bushwhackers lost 
heart and said the venture was too great. They coun- 
seled retreat, or at least a drawing off until conditions 
were better known. Quantrill said he would enter the 
town if he had to go in alone, and when he advanced 
he was followed by the whole command. 

Lawrence was unprotected and helpless. Two camps 
of recruits were her only troops; these numbered less 
than thirty and were unarmed. The arms provided for 
the defense of the town had been taken from the citizens 
and locked up. Quantrill had been expected often, but 
had failed to come, and it had become the settled con- 
viction that he would never appear at the gates of Law- 
rence. But there he was. Gregg found the camp of 
white recruits as Quantrill came up with him, and it was 
instantly ridden down and most of the recruits killed. 
The colored recruits fled at sight of the guerrillas and 
nearly all escaped. The citizens were aroused by horse- 
men galloping madly through the streets, and the rising 
roar of firearms. The Eldridge House was surrendered 
on promise of protection for the guests, and this prom- 
ise was kept. Men appeared in the streets only to be 
shot down. The torch was applied to dwelling and 
store. Terror seized the men when the situation was 
realized. They were shot as they ran to cover. Or if 
they were concealed by their wives their homes were 



THE LAWRENCE MASSACRE 157 

burned over them while raving bushmen stood by to 
murder them if they should try to escape. Stores and 
liquor shops were looted and burning dwellings ran- 
sacked for plunder to carry back to Missouri. Women 
and children were stripped of jewelry, ornaments, and 
keepsakes by guerrillas, now drunk and reckless. IIus- 
bands were torn from the arms of shrieking wives and 
murdered. Wounded men were cast into seething 
flames to die by fire. There was no mercy. While the 
loot of the tow r n w T as being packed on horses to be carried 
into Missouri those appointed to the work of destruc- 
tion rode headlong, firing with deadly aim and yelling 
like fiends. W T hen burning buildings fell in on trapped 
men the air w T as rent with shouts of exultation. Above 
the tumult rose triumphant cries for Jeff Davis and the 
Southern Confederacy. When the town w r as destroyed, 
the loot secured, and not another man in sight to be 
murdered, Quantrill prepared to leave. Nearly two 
hundred citizens and non-combatants w 7 ere dead in the 
ruins. The vengeance of the guerrilla chief was satis- 
fied. As he was calling in his bloody band his guards 
came down from Mount Oread and reported pursuing 
columns approaching. Leaving a detail under Gregg 
to round up the drunken and unruly, Quantrill hurried 
south. He left a city in ashes, innocent dead in every 
street, and hundreds of widows and orphans crying 
wildly through the gloom or standing hopelessly about 
their smoldering homes. And on the flag under which 
he fought he left a blood-stain which only the charity 
of the sufferers can ever efface. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

THE PURSUIT OF QUANTRILL * 

At eight o'clock on the night of the 20th of August, 
Captain Coleman, at Little Santa Fe, received a dis- 
patch from Captain Pike, saying that Quantrill, with 
seven hundred men, was camped on the head of the 
Grand Eiver, eight miles to the east. Quantrill was, in 
fact, at that hour approaching Spring Hill, Kansas, 
twelve miles west of the State-line, and he had been in 
Kansas at least four hours; and on the prairie near 
Squiresville his men had dismounted and allowed their 
horses to graze an hour. A second dispatch from Pike 
reached Coleman fifteen minutes later. It stated that 
Quantrill had passed into Kansas with eight hundred 
men. Captain Coleman at once sent couriers to Kan- 
sas City with that information. He also sent a messen- 
ger west to notify the towns of the presence of the guer- 
rillas. He hurried with his men to Aubry and assumed 
command there. This gave him about one hundred and 
eighty men, and at midnight he took the trail of the 
guerrillas. 

The first courier of Captain Coleman arrived at Kan- 
sas City at eleven-thirty, and the second courier came 
in an hour later. General Ewing was absent, having 
gone to Leavenworth. Major Plumb, as Chief-of-Staff, 

i Ewing and Plumb were both severely criticised at the time and 
for years afterwards. For that reason. the pursuit of Quantrill is 
treated at length. No one should be shielded. The writer made a 
personal examination of the country through which the pursuit was 
conducted, and sought every source of information on the subject 
that the facts might be written here. 

158 



THE PURSUIT OF QUANTRILL 159 

was in command. As soon as possible after the arrival 
of the second dispatch he was on his way to Kansas with 
seventeen men — all the mounted men immediately 
available at Kansas City. 2 At Westport he added thirty 
men to his command. The dispatch of Captain Cole- 
man — that Quantrill had entered Kansas with eight 
hundred men — was the only information he had of 
the situation. At daylight on the morning of the 21st 
he arrived at Olathe. There he found the garrison in 
arms, the men having been roused by the long roll on 
the arrival of Captain Coleman's courier. While he 
was making inquiries a great column of black smoke 
boiling like a thunder-head shot into the sky far to the 
westward. Observing it a moment, he turned to his 
men and said, " Quantrill is in Lawrence." Lieutenant 
Cyrus Leland, Jr., was at Olathe, and was given per- 
mission to join the pursuit. Taking the few mounted 
men found at Olathe, Major Plumb rode across the coun- 
try straight for Lawrence. He sent George Plumb with 
a few men to alarm the people living along the Kansas 
River, believing the guerrillas might try to return to 
Missouri that way. 3 

At Blue-Jacket Crossing of the Wakarusa, some six 
miles southeast of Lawrence, with but thirty men re- 
maining, his force having been reduced by details to 



- For the exact time of the arrival of the dispatches at Kansas 
City see the official report of General Ewing, Rebellion Reeords, 
Series I, Vol. XXII, Part I, p. 579. In the same volume, immediately 
following the report of General Ewing will be found all others re- 
lating to the Quantrill raid. 

3 Samuel Boies, of Lawrence, was saved by Quantrill to drive the 
ambulance carrying the guerrillas wounded there. He escaped. He 
says, in Kansas City Journal, August 29, 1S03: 

" Quantrill avowed his intention to march to Osawatomie, laying 
everything waste as he went. At Rothrock's, or Ulrich's, where he 
stopped to water his horses, Lane first came up with the pursuit, 
and as Quantrill's men were off the road to the west, Quantrill first 
thought they would be able to head him off. In that case, he avowed 
his intention of turning back and marching down the Kaw Valley 
to Missouri." 



160 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

scout and carry dispatches to Kansas City, Plumb found 
Captain Coleman just ahead of him. 4 

Clouds of dust and columns of smoke south of Law- 
rence indicated that Quantrill was retreating on the 
Fort Scott road and laying waste the country. Plumb 
took command of Coleman's force. He recrossed the 
Wakarusa and made all haste south to the Santa Fe 
Trail at Baldwin, which point he reached ahead of the 
guerrillas, his appearance saving it and Prairie City 
from the torch. The sky was without a cloud, the day 
calm and still, the country parched and dusty, and the 
heat excessive. The gallop of twelve miles from the 
Wakarusa to the Santa Fe Trail completed the exhaus- 
tion of the horses, all of which had made more than 
sixty-five miles without rest. 5 Some horses had dropped 
dead in the road ascending the divide traversed by the 
old Trail. 

After burning most of the houses in and about Brook- 
lyn, Quantrill, driven by fear of Lane who was pressing 
his rear, started down the Santa Fe Trail towards 
Baldwin. From a high point in the road he saw Major 
Plumb's column marching up the Santa Fe Trail to 
meet him. Quantrill left the Trail and turned to the 
south to avoid Plumb, intending to regain the Trail at 

4 Thomas Barber, Company C, Eleventh Kansas, has said to the 
author that Plumb sent a number of dispatches to Ewing at Kansas 
City and that these were sent to Leavenworth. Major Martin Ander- 
son, Eleventh Kansas, went in pursuit of Quantrill on the 21st, and 
Barber was with him. They met a courier with a dispatch from 
Plumb, which urged Ewing to place troops along the State-line, and 
Plumb supposed that Ewing would be in Kansas City as soon as he 
could return from Leavenworth. 

Captain Coleman and Major Plumb both crossed the Wakarusa. 
In a Idler to his mother, written August 29, 1863, Cyrus Leland, Jr., 
says, " Major Plumb came up with Captain Coleman just east of 
Franklin." 

c In his official report General Ewing says : 

" By this time the horses of our detachments were almost 
exhausted. Nearly all were young horses, jusl issued to the com- 
panies, and had marched more than sixty-five miles without rest and 
without food." 



THE PURSUIT OF QUANTRILL 161 

Baldwin; but after having gone a mile lie decided that 
this could not be done. The guerrilla leader was dis- 
concerted, and after a hurried conference with his guides 
and captains, retraced his course to a point near Brook- 
lyn, where he turned south on the Fort Scott road. 
From the point where he turned back he sent a scouting 
party to reach and destroy Baldwin and Prairie City 
if possible, and in any event to keep between Plumb's 
men and the guerrillas. 

When the guerrillas were pushed off the Santa Fe 
Trail the citizens led by Lane in pursuit kept to the 
road until they met the Union troops. Whether Lane 
and Plumb met at this time is not clear. 7 The militia 
regiment of that region was rapidly assembling. Sandy 
Lowe, Colonel of the Twenty-first Kansas Militia, had 
summoned his men and joined the pursuing citizens. 8 



c Statement of Captain William H. Gregg, who always speaks of 
the site of Brooklyn as Black-Jaek Point. Whether this is the real 
Black-Jack and the name was given later through ignorance to those 
groves some miles east where John Brown captured H. Clay Pate, is 
not known. 

7 Cyrus Leland, Jr., is positive they did not meet here. Lieutenant 
John M. Singer is fully as positive that they did. He says that a 
little south of this point he heard Lane urging Plumb to turn the 
troops over to him — Lane — and that some high words passed when 
Plumb refused. It is certain that Lane demanded of Plumb the com- 
mand of the troops. Lane was, for some cause, far behind his citizens 
when they charged through the lane following Captain Coleman, and 
his controversy with Plumb would account for the detention. 

s Lowe had been active in the border wars as a loyal man. Because 
of an indignity to which his wife had been subjected by the guerrillas 
he made the war a personal matter. It is said that he slew from 
time to time the twenty-eight guerrillas, mostly by assassination, who 
mistreated his wife and child. Three of his companies were about 
Baldwin ; those of Captain Sprague, of Prairie City ; Captain Pingree, 
of Baldwin ; and Captain Jackson Bell, of Black-Jaek. William W. 
Junkin, of Baldwin, was in Captain Pingree's company. He said to 
the author that Colonel Lowe did not succeed in getting many of his 
men together. The time was too short. Junkin captured a guerrilla 
and took him to Lowe, who immediately shot him dead, saying as ho 
did so : " That makes forty of them I have killed. I had killed 
thirty-nine before this one." His act and the reflection he expressed 
thereon seemed to give him immense satisfaction. 



162 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

After a brief conference Plumb divided his command, 
sending Captain Coleman to fall on the guerrilla rear, 
and intending himself to go with the militia south to a 
ford on Ottawa Creek to stand across the road. When 
Plumb started from Kansas City, he sent an orderly to 
the quarters of Lieutenant John H. Singer with an order 
to form his men and follow into Kansas. Singer made 
a rapid march on the trail of Plumb, coming up while 
the conference was in progress. Plumb inquired how 
many horses Singer had that could still trot, and sixty 
were found. They were given to Captain Coleman who 
secured in his own command enough in addition to make 
two hundred men. With these he charged through the 
lane running north of William C. Black's house to the 
Fort Scott road, and was followed by the citizens who 
had come with Lane, and others under Leland. This 
left Plumb with about one hundred soldiers on horses 
which could not be forced into a trot because of exhaus- 
tion. With these and Colonel Lowe's militia he started 
south to form the ambush at the crossing of Ottawa 
Creek. At Prairie City he heard the firing and uproar 
of Captain Coleman's charge on the guerrillas, and find- 
ing that it would be impossible for him to keep up with 
the militia on the way to the ford, he turned west and 
went to Captain Coleman's aid. He arrived at the 
Fletcher farm as Captain Coleman was driven back 
through the cornfield, and checked the guerrillas, who 
did not cross the north fence. 

Passing to the south of the field, Quantrill gave Cap- 
tain Gregg a rear-guard of sixty men and ordered him 
to remain facing the field until the guerrilla force had 
crossed Ottawa Creek, after which he followed them. 
The ford was not more than half a mile from the corn- 
field, and was not the ford on the main road, which was 
some five miles away. 9 It was necessary for Major 

b The heavy traffic between Fort Leavenworth and Fort Scott to 
supply the army of General Blunt went over this Fort Scott road. 



THE PURSUIT OF QUANTRILL 1G3 

Plumb to reform his troops for the pursuit, putting 
those iu front who had horses that were still able to trot, 
and these were mostly the militia and citizens under 
Lieutenant Leland. They charged the guerrilla rear- 
guard many times that afternoon, but when the cavalry 
would appear Captain Gregg would retreat through a 
second line which he kept always back of him, then form 
across the road near the retreating column. The Fed- 
eral soldiers were from a mile to three miles in the rear 
all the time. Major Plumb's horse failed from heat and 
exhaustion in the afternoon, and George Plumb took one 
for him from a farmer. After he got this fresh horse 
Major Plumb rode much with Leland. 10 Quantrill's 
guide on the retreat from Lawrence was one of his 
own men, James Beets, a Border-Ruffian resident of 
Miami County up to the War. As he approached 
Paola, the guide either became confused or wished to 
lead the guerrillas into that town. " Quantrill rode 
forward and asked the guide where he was taking them 
to," says Boies. " The guide replied that the town be- 
fore them was Morristown, Mo. Quantrill looked a mo- 
ment and then cursed the guide, telling him that the 
town was Paola ; that a heavy force was there, and they 



The teamsters drove over the best ground they could find. South of 
the Fletcher farm there were numerous branches of this road — all 
crossing Ottawa Creek at different points. The author went twice in 
the fall of 1910 to find the ford at which Quantrill crossed. He found 
five fords at which it is claimed Quantrill crossed. All of these fords 
were in use in the summer of 1SG3, and it was impossible for the 
militia to know where Quantrill would cross or which ford to ambush. 
If they were at any ford it was at one Quantrill did not use, for there 
is no account of any opposition at a ford. Captain Gregg saw Quan- 
trill enter the timber at the ford before he started to follow him, and 
says that Quantrill would not have ordered him to face the Federal 
troops with only sixty men until he was five miles away. George 
Plumb says the guerrillas crossed Ottawa Creek near the field on the 
Fletcher farm. 

10 See Leland's official report, Rebellion Records, Series I, Vol. 
XXII, Part 1, p. 51)2. General Lane was also at the front most of 
the time. 



164 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

would be cut to pieces if they proceeded." This oc- 
curred on top of the " Big Hill," a mile and a quarter 
west of Bull Creek, which runs on the west side of 
Paola. While the guerrillas were halted there, the mi- 
litia came up and charged them. Quantrill turned his 
whole command, rode back, met the charge and fought 
the militia, which held the guerrilla force ten minutes, 
hoping the cavalry would he able to come up, but had 
finally to fall back. After a brief council with his offi- 
cers, at the top of the hill, Quantrill left the road, going 
up Bull Creek and away from Paola. It was dark be- 
fore Major Plumb again reached the top of the hill. 
There was not a guerrilla in sight, and, supposing that 
Quantrill had gone into Paola, he marched in that di- 
rection. 

In the afternoon Ben Ellis had arrived at Paola and 
alarmed the citizens. Captain B. F. Simpson was at 
home, and he set about the defense of the town. There 
w r ere but twelve soldiers there. About four o'clock Cap- 
tain Nicholas Beuter, Company C, Twelfth Kansas, ar- 
rived with his company. Simpson got as many citizens 
as he could, and by dark he had about three hundred 
men and soldiers under arms. Scouts reported the 
guerrillas approaching, and Simpson decided to ambush 
them at the ford of Bull Creek. There was no water 
in the ford, but for a hundred yards immediately above 
it there was a stretch of deep water lying parallel with 
the road, shallow next to the road and deep on the east 
side against a high, steep bank, on the top of which 
grew a thicket of willows. Simpson believed that after 
the day's march over the waterless prairie the horses 
of the guerrillas would become unmanageable when 
they came to this pool and crowd in to drink. He 
formed his men in the willows along the top of the 
sleep bank intending to fire when the horses had rushed 
into the water. Shortly after the ambush was formed 
two hundred more soldiers arrived, and these were 



THE PURSUIT OF QUANTRILL 1G5 

posted in ambush also, but nearer the ford. Simpson 
sent six men to scout along the road towards the Big 
Hill. They returned a little ahead of Major Plumb's 
command, which was advancing along this road to- 
wards Paola — very little ahead of it. They reported 
that there had been a battle on the Big Tlill, and that 
the guerrillas were following and would, be on them in 
a minute — supposing Major Plumb's men to be the 
guerrillas. Simpson made his final arrangements to de- 
liver an effective fire and follow it with a vigorous at- 
tack on both flanks of the guerrilla column. Major 
Plumb's men reached the creek, and their horses did 
exactly what Simpson had expected those of the guer- 
rillas to do — 'rushed into the waiter and threw the 
whole line into confusion. In trying to prevent this 
Major Plumb gave orders in a loud voice. Simpson 
recognized Plumb's voice as lie was giving the order to 
fire and called out — "Is that you, Plumb?" "Yes," 
said Plumb, as he recognized Simpson's voice. Thus 
by the merest chance were the Union troops saved from 
the ambush designed for the guerrillas. 

Plumb was told that the guerrillas had not appeared 
at the ford. The Union forces then went into Paola, 
finding there Lieutenant-Colonel C. S. Clark, the rank- 
ing officer, and also in command of all the forces south 
of Little Santa Fe. Plumb's authority ceased. When 
Clark took the direction of affairs all vigor was lost. 
Scouts located Quantrill's camp five miles north of 
Paola, and the troops wished to attack him there but 
Clark would not permit it to be done, though he had 
at least four hundred men who were comparatively 
fresh. 

It was daylight the morning of the 22d when he left 
Paola, and he w T as fifteen miles behind the guerrillas. 
He came in sight of them four or five miles east of the 
State-line, but they retreated, leaving their wounded. 
General Ewing said, " There has been no failure to 



1GG THE LIFE OF PKESTON B. PLUMB 

exert every possible effort to catcli Quantrill, except 
at Paola, Friday night, when a great occasion was 
lost." u 

At ten-forty-five A. M., on the 21st, General Ewing 
received dispatches from Major Plumb. At Fort 
Leavenworth there were five companies of an Ohio regi- 
ment outfitting for Fort Laramie. These were armed 
at once. At one p. m. General Ewing started from the 
fort. He crossed the Kansas Biver at De Soto, being 
delayed five hours in getting his men over. He, too, 
complains of the awful heat of that day, saying that: 
" Four men of the Eleventh Ohio were sun-stricken, 
among them Lieutenant Dick, who accompanied me, and 
who fell dead on dismounting to rest." At Lanesfield, 
Johnson County, General Ewing spent the night of the 
21st. On the morning of the 22d he heard that Quan- 
trill had passed east. Then he left his command and 
followed the pursuing troops into Missouri, coming up 
with them five or six miles east of the State-line, after 
which the pursuit was directed by him. He and Gen- 
eral Lane had a number of stormy interviews, and 
there is no doubt that the forthcoming Order No. 11 was 
discussed by them. 12 



ii Rebellio'h Records, Series I, Vol. XXII, Part II, p. 447. 

12 Order No. 11 is the most famous order issued on the border dur- 
ing the Civil War. There are conflicting accounts of how and where 
it was written. There is evidence that in the field on the morning 
of August 22d Senator Lane exacted from General Ewing a promise 
that the order should be issued. Senator Stephen B. Elkins told the 
author that the order was written at the house of Solomon Ilouck, 
at Westport, Mo., and that he and Senator Plumb were present when it 
was written. Mrs. Nannie Harris McCorkle, a prisoner in the mili- 
tary prison for women at Kansas City, told her sister, Mrs. Eliza 
Deal, that Major Plumb wrote the order — that he was directed by 
General Ewing to write it and did so. 

Following is a copy of " General Order No. 11 " : 

Kansas City, Mo., August 23, 18G3. 
All persons living in Jackson, Cass and Bates Counties, Missouri, 
and that pari of Vernon County included in this district, except those 
living within one mile of the limits of Independence, Hickman's 



THE PURSUIT OF QUANTRILL 1(17 

Mills, Pleasant Hill and Ilarrisonville, and except those in Kaw 
Township, Jackson County, north of this crock and west of the Big 
Bine embracing Kansas City and Westport, arc hereby ordered t«- 
nuno've from their places of residence within lifteen days from the 

date hereof. 

Those who within that time prove their loyalty to the satisfaction 
of the commanding officer of the military station nearest their 
present places of residence, will receive from him certificates stating 
the fact of their loyalty, and the names of the witnesses by whom it 
can be sworn. All who receive such certificates will be permitted to 
remove to any military station in this district, or to any part of 
Kansas except the counties on the eastern border of the State. All 
others shall remove out of this district. Officers commanding com- 
panies and detachments serving in companies will see that this 
paragraph is promptly obeyed. 

All hay or grain in the field or under shelter, in the district from 
which the inhabitants are required to remove, within reach of the 
military stations after the 9th of September next, will be taken to 
such stations and turned over to the proper officers there, and a report 
of the amount so turned over made to the district headquarters, 
specifying the names of all loyal owners and the amount of such 
produce taken from them. All grain and hay found in such districts 
after the 9th of September next, not convenient to such stations, will 
be destroyed. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

PROVOST MARSHAL 

When General Ewing assumed command of the Dis- 
trict of the Border he appointed Major Plumb Provost 
Marshal. The appointment gave general satisfaction. 1 
Under caption of " Justice Done " the Kansas City 
Journal, July 4, 1863, says: "Every hoof of stock 
which we mentioned the other day as having been driven 
off from loyal citizens of this county, has been returned 
to its rightful owner. The result of this affair is in the 
highest degree creditable." There are many such 
notices. Of Major Plumb's administration there was 
but one complaint. 

General Ewing realized that the enforcement of Order 
Xo. 11 would be a delicate and difficult matter, and to 
show that he was not moved by any spirit of revenge 
or retaliation, he requested General Schofield to detail 
Colonel R. T. Van Horn for service at Kansas City, his 
home. General Ewing appointed Colonel Van Horn 
Provost Marshal because of his personal acquaintance 
with the people of the district. He took charge of his 
office early in September 2 and performed his duties 
with such tact and judgment that even those who suf- 
fered most were ever after his friends. One of the cases 



i In speaking of it the Kansas City Journal said: "Gen. Ewing 
lias just appointed as his Provost Marshal, Major P. B. Plumb — an 
old resident of Kansas and a life-long anti-slavery man and Republi- 
can, and a man who is emphatically down on all kinds of speculation, 
whether in or out of the army." 

2 Exact date not found. 

168 



PROVOST MARSHAL 169 

in process of adjustment when lie was appointed was 
that of A. L. II. Crenshaw, a citizen of the " Six 
Mile " neighborhood, eight miles southeast of Inde- 
pendence. 

Crenshaw was arrested August 24, 1863, three days 
after the Lawrence Massacre, for having in his posses- 
sion a letter to a Colonel Page, of the Confederate army, 
given him for delivery by one Wiley Aiken, who was 
also arrested. Crenshaw claimed to be loyal, though 

j it was not denied that he harbored guerrillas, and that 
his property was never molested by them. He had 
taken out a Federal license as a stock-trader and had on 
hand about sixty mules and some other live-stock. He 
was thrown into jail at Independence, where he was 
questioned by Captain Graham, Acting Quartermaster, 
who demanded as the price of his release that the loca- 
tion of QuantrilTs camp should be revealed. He denied 
all knowledge of the guerrilla camp, and Captain Gra- 
ham burned his house and confiscated his hay and grain 
for the Government under the military rules then in 
force. Four days after his imprisonment at Independ- 
ence Crenshaw was taken to Kansas City and plaeed 

iin a cell in the courthouse, from which he was taken 
the following night by one Logan, a Government de- 
tective, and beyond question a bad character. Logan 
claimed to have an order from Major Plumb for the 
removal of Crenshaw from his cell to answer questions 
about his property. Crenshaw was threatened with 
death and terrorized by Logan. One Kingsley, chief 

| of detectives, took Crenshaw from his cell on what he 
claimed was an order from Major Plumb and forced 
him to sign bills of sale for almost no consideration for 
his mules and some other property. Even the agreed 
consideration was not paid him by Kingsley, but later 
the Government paid him full value for all property 
except the mules, which General Ewing turned over to 
a contracting company, directing that it pay Crenshaw 



170 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

the value of the mules, which it failed to do. 3 About 
the time he was turning over the affairs of the district 
to Colonel Van Horn, Major Plumb detailed a guard 
and commanded it in person while it removed Crenshaw 
in an ambulance to the hospital of the military prison 
at Independence. While in the hospital he complained 
of the treatment to which he had been subjected by the 
detectives, Logan especially. General Ewing convened 
a court-martial, before which Logan was tried and by 
which he was sentenced to serve ten years in the Alton 
penitentiary. A member of the court-martial made the 
following statement of the case. 4 

It is true that Crenshaw was outrageously used by Logan, the 
detective. This villain, Logan, laid the plans to get the property 
and executed it under the authority granted him for acting as 
detective. 

But it is not true that this brutal treatment of Crenshaw by 
Logan was done by authority, consent or knowledge of Major 
Plumb or General Ewing. Mr. Crenshaw told me of his treat- 
ment at the hands of Logan. I was on duty as " Officer of the 
Day " at the time. 

I informed Major Plumb and General Ewing of the matter. 
Logan was arrested, and General Ewing called a court-martial, 
of which I was a member. Logan was tried, found guilty, and 
sentenced to ten years at Alton penitentiary. 

The feeling of exasperation among our officers and men 
at Logan's conduct in this matter was loud, deep and general at 
the time. He was as brutal a villain as ever cut a throat or 
scuttled a ship, but we did not know it when he was put on duty 
as a detective. 



s See report of the Ilouse Committee on War Claims, 43d and 45th 
Congresses. 

* Captain L. F. Green, in the Baldwin (Kansas) Ledger, April 9, 
1889. On the subject of loyalty Captain Green says : 

As to Crenshaw being a Union man it would take too long to tell 
the various grades, degrees and shades of " Union men " like Cren- 
Bhaw, who infested the "banks and braes and streams around" 
among the Sni hills of old Jackson County, Mo. The class to 
which Crenshaw belonged had to carry a memorandum book to see 
which government they "swore to support" last. Captain Lindsay, 
of Pasadena, Cal., would be a good witness as to Crenshaw being a 
Union man. 



PKOVOST MARSHAL 171 

General E. B. Brown, of Missouri, revived this mat- 
ter against Major Plumb in 1SG4. Many of the Mis- 
souri officers in the Union army were at heart utterly 
disloyal. They stipulated as a condition on which they 
would enlist that they should never be required to do 
service outside of Missouri. General E. B. Brown was 
in command of the District of Central Missouri, adjoin- 
ing General E wing's district. After Ewing had made 
unsuccessful efforts to suppress the guerrillas he wrote 
to General Schofield " That it was utterly impossible 
to prevent harboring of bushwhackers and suppress 
their raids as long as the District immediately east was 
under the command of a rebel sympathizer." 5 Imme- 
diately after the Quantrill raid this class of Missouri 
Union officers and men began an attack on General 
Schofield, hoping to have him removed — which would 
have meant the removal also of General Ewing. It was 
the design to have the Missouri portion of the District 
of the Border attached to the district of General Brown. 
President Lincoln declined to remove General Schofield. 7 
But the east tier of counties of the district was de- 
tached and added to that of General Brown, who moved 
his headquarters to Lexington, Mo. General Brown 
was extremely bitter and unjust to Kansas, her troops 
and people. His orders concerning the proposed in- 
vasion of Missouri by Kansas to recover their goods 
after the Quantrill raid were couched in the most brutal 
and offensive terms. The people of Kansas were de- 
nounced as robbers, murderers, marauders, and outlaws. 
The citizens slain at Lawrence by Quantrill were sneer- 
ingly referred to. 8 



o See Kansas Chief, April 18, 1889. It was edited by Sol Miller, at 
Troy, Doniphan County. Also see Rebellion Records, Series I, Vol. 
XLI, p. 348, for an account of General Brown's arrest for cowardice 
in the Price raid. 

6 See Rebellion Records, Series I, Vol. XXII, Part II, pp. 54G et seq. 
Many pages there are wholly devoted to this matter. 7 id. p. GOfi. 

s Id. p. 509. Missourians were advised to kill Kansas citizens 
wherever found. 



172 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

In September, 1863, Major Plumb was placed in com- 
mand of the troops operating from Independence, Mo., 
and was relentless in his pursuit of guerrillas. In this 
work his men once crossed the line into Lafayette and 
Johnson Counties. General Brown wrote General 
Schofield that " Troops under command of Colonel 
Weer and Major Plumb are in the western portion of 
this district robbing the country. Will you please order 
General Ewing to have them immediately withdrawn, 
and prohibited from entering in the future? " 9 In all 
the annals of the war no record has been found that 
the Eleventh Kansas, or any member of it, pillaged any 
country or robbed or wronged any citizen, and the let- 
ter of General Brown was intended as an insult to 
Colonel Weer and Major Plumb, Kansans and officers of 
Kansas troops. 

When General Schofield was promoted, General 
Ewing was sent to St. Louis, and General Brown was 
put in command at Kansas City. He immediately con- 
vened a Board of army officers and made efforts to 
discover something wrong in the administration of Gen- 
eral Ewing. The only case found was this matter of 
Crenshaw. A court-martial had passed on it and the 
offender had been punished for his crime. But as 
Major Plumb had been Provost Marshal when the ar- 
rest was made, and as General Brown was a bitter 
enemy of Kansas and Kansas men generally and Major 
Plumb particularly, he had his Board report that Ma- 
jor Plumb was responsible for the abuse of Crenshaw. 
No one paid the slightest attention to the findings of 
General Brown's Board, as the motive which prompted 
its creation was generally understood. Crenshaw was 
the only witness except those introduced to show his 
loyalty. The absurdity of the proceedings may be 
stated in — 

That Crenshaw was not arrested by Plumb, or 

o Id. p. 501. 



PEOVOST MARSHAL 173 

by any order or direction given by him. Plumb 
knew nothing of the arrest, — 

That Crenshaw could neither read nor write and 
did not know that the detectives had any order 
from Major Plumb for his examination, and testi- 
fied that he had been told by someone afterward 
that Plumb issued the order, — 

That Logan was convicted of crimes in connec- 
tion with the affair and sent to prison for ten years, 
and that nothing whatever appeared against Major 
Plumb, who aided in the prosecution of Logan, — 

That the only time when Major Plumb appeared 
in the whole matter was when he summoned a 
guard for the ambulance and took Crenshaw to the 
hospital at Independence. All the testimony given 
by Crenshaw against Plumb was hearsay except 
this one incident, which was a kindness to Cren- 
shaw, — 

That in the report of the matter made by Gen- 
eral Brown's Board there is a statement from Gen- 
eral Ewing completely exonerating Major Plumb in 
the whole Crenshaw matter, saying that Major 
Plumb knew nothing whatever of it, and that al- 
most the entire time of Crenshaw's imprisonment 
at Kansas City Plumb was absent in the field. 
In 1889 Murat Halstead was editor of the Cincinnati 
Commercial-Gazette. He was nominated for Minister 
to Germany. The Senate rejected his nomination. 
Halstead attacked those Senators who had opposed his 
confirmation, among them Senator Plumb, sending one 
" General " Boynton to work up the Crenshaw case. 
This was in Boynton's line, as there was scarcely a 
prominent officer of the Union army who had not been 
slandered by him. All the guerrillas about Independ- 
ence were interviewed and their stories sent broadcast 
by Boynton. Crenshaw had been pressing a claim 
against the Government for his mules, and he was held 



174 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

up as the pitiful object of Senator Plumb's persecution. 
Fortunately Senator Plumb left an account of this 
Crenshaw incident. In a letter to his friend, Theo. S. 
Case, Kansas City, he reviewed the matter so far as he 
had connection with it. Crenshaw's abettors had at- 
tempted to compel him to vote for the claim under 
threats to show his connection with the case. This 
base proposal Senator Plumb treated with contempt, as 
his letter will show : 

United States Senate, 

Washington, D. C, Sept. 23, 1891. 
Hon. Theodore S. Case, Kansas City, Mo. 

Dear Sir: I am duly in receipt of your favor of the 22d. If 
I had been asked, originally, whether I thought Crenshaw a loyal 
man I should have said decidedly I did not, for reasons not neces- 
sary to go into ; but when I saw that you and Colonel Van Horn 
and others had vouched for his loyalty, I thought very likely 
I might be mistaken. Those who have been promoting his claim 
against the Government have seemed to feel that their interest 
lay in defaming me. That Mr. Crenshaw was mistreated while 
he was in custody there is probably no doubt, but I not only 
had no part in it at the time but knew nothing whatever of it 
for a long time afterwards. If I had desired his destruction it 
would have been very easy for me to have made away with Cren- 
shaw without any risk whatever; but on the contrary, when he 
was turned over to me to take to Independence, in the hope 
that information might be obtained from him, which would be 
of use to the Union cause, I protected him. The belief in his 
disloyalty was so thorough among all of our men who were in 
and about Independence, that he probably would have been shot 
down if it had not been that I was sheltering him. I believed 
him disloyal in sentiment, and in some degree at least in action, 
but I did not deem this a warrant for killing him, and besides 
I believed that he might be made use of to obtain information 
of the movements of the enemy and in other ways help our side. 

When the Crenshaw claim was first brought to my attention 
in Congress, it was in the shape of a threat that if I did not 
help the claim through, the alleged facts should be given to the 
world. I then for the first time learned definitely what were 
the alleged facts about the treatment of Crenshaw and my par- 
ticipation therein, and I very naturally, and as I thought, 
properly replied that my influence for the claim could not be 



PROVOST MARSHAL 175 

Had on those terms. Subsequently all that malice could invent 
was said and made public, and some of the immediate friends of 
Crenshaw and the family, now living in Jackson County, as I 
understand, gave every possible emphasis to it. Notwithstand- 
ing this, if the court of claims finds that he was loyal, and men 
like you and Colonel Van Horn think he was, I shall raise no 
objection to the payment of the claim ; but I do not understand 
at this time how the court of claims could get jurisdiction to 
hear and determine it; still this will be made apparent at a 
later time. 

Very truly yours, 

P. B. Plumb. 



CHAPTER XXIX 

INDEPENDENCE — HUMBOLDT — OLATHE 

Major Plumb was in command at Independence 
after September 22, 1863, from which post he was con- 
stantly on the trail of the guerrillas in accordance with 
General Ewing's purpose to exterminate them or drive 
them from his district. 1 The vigorous warfare against 
them forced the guerrillas to leave Missouri for the 
winter about the first of October — much earlier than 
usual. This brought relief to the border, and the troops 
found themselves with little to do. General Ewing was 
informed that the District of the Border would be 
changed early in the coming year and that he would be 
sent to another field. Early in December Major Plumb 
was sent to Humboldt and put in command of the 
troops in and west of the Neosho Valley. 2 

Humboldt was four miles north of the Osage Indian 
reservation, and cattle-stealing on a large scale was car- 
ried on by parties then living there. The Osages were 
paid two dollars a head for all the cattle they delivered, 
and which they had gathered in Texas and the Indian 
country south of Kansas. The cattle were sold to the 



i Rebellion Records, Series T, Vol. XXII. Part II. p. 5(58. 

2 Rebellion Records, Series I. Vol. XXXIV, Part II, p. 207. Report 
of General Curtis, commanding the Department of Kansas, January 
31, 1S0-1. shows Major Plumb at Humboldt with Company C, Eleventh 
Kansas, and Company M, Third Wisconsin. In the same Series. Vol. 
XXII, Part II, p. 748, General Ewinjr. on December 23, 18(53, writes 
Col. C. W. Blair, in command at Fort Seott, that Major Plumb, then 
at Humboldt, had a total force of 300 men, twenty-seven of whom 
were artillerymen. 

17(5 



INDEPENDENCE — HUMBOLDT — OLATHE 177 

Government for a good price. Men of prominence both 
in the State and in the army were interested in this 
business. One of Plumb's first acts was to stop this 
cattle-stealing. 3 He bought in the open market what 
cattle he required, paying what they were fairly worth, 
and saved much to the Government. He found also that 
some of the officers were securing their forage by com- 
mutation — buying where they pleased and for as little 
as they could, and charging it into their accounts with 
the quartermaster at Fort Scott at a high rate. In 
some instances Plumb discovered that the supplies had 
been taken from the citizens without payment. He 
stopped the commutation at once. He had G. M. 
Walker, Company C, Eleventh Kansas, detailed as 
quartermaster and commissary, and directed him to buy 
supplies at the lowest price for which they could be 
obtained until a proper contract for them could be made 
and approved. And he found it difficult to get a con- 
tract approved, so satisfactory to those somewhere 
along the line had been the old system. But Major 
Plumb finally suppressed the corrupt practices he found 
at Humboldt. 4 



3 Ally Dickinson, Chanute, Kansas, was in the Third Wisconsin 
Cavalry. He was at Humboldt with Plumb and had this to say of 
his command there : 

His duty was to guard this western country and protect it from 
cattle-thieves and guerrillas. There were a great many cattle stolen 
from the territory. We have captured as high as 600 head of big 
steers at one time. 

Plumb was a man that everybody liked. I never saw a uniform 
on him but once. That was when Ross, afterwards United States 
Senator, came to inspect us. Then Plumb put on his shoulder straps. 
A blouse suited him best. 

4 Statement to the author by G. M. Walker ; also of Captain J. S. 
Stewart, an honored citizen of Humboldt. In these statements appear 
the names of those who were profiting by the dishonest methods 
stamped out by Major Plumb. Captain Stewart said the people were 
pleased with Major Plumb's administration at Humboldt and pro- 
tested whenever it was said that he might be sent to command another 
post. They even spread rumors at such times that there was likely 
to be trouble with the Indians or bushwhackers, that he might be 
allowed to remain. 



ITS THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

The Indians of mixed blood almost all went with 
the Confederacy, while those of full blood were gen- 
erally loyal to the Union. These loyal Indians were 
forced to leave their various countries, and many of 
them came into Kansas, where a number of Indian 
regiments were recruited from refugee camps. Later, 
these refugee Indians were returned to the Indian coun- 
try and placed in camps about Fort Gibson where they 
could be protected. It was necessary for the Govern- 
ment to supply both the troops and the Indians there 
with food, which had to be hauled in wagons from 
Kansas. Many of these supply trains passed through 
Humboldt, and as the country through which they must 
go was infested with desperate guerrillas, escorts had 
to be provided. Sometimes conditions were such that 
Major Plumb felt it his duty to command an escort in 
person. Early in February, 1864, he took a train to 
Fort Gibson. On this trip he had encounters with 
guerrillas all the way after entering the Indian country. 
In April he again took charge of a train, and the trip 
was almost a constant skirmish with bands of robbers 
and bushwhackers. On this trip Patrick Sherman, a 
famous freighter and frontiersman, was his wagon- 
master. 5 

In the summer of 1864 the headquarters of the Dis- 
trict of Southern Kansas was at Paola. Colonel Moon- 
light was in command of the district. In July the 
guerrillas along the border began to show great activity 
— the first indications of the invasion of Missouri by 
General Sterling Price. 



e In the National Tribune, June 23. 1010, Asher S. Childers, Com- 
pany C, Eleventh Kansas, has an account of the February escort. 
George Plumb was a member of that which made the trip in April. 
Sherman was for thirty years depot-master at Topeka for the Santa 
Fe Railroad. He said Major Plumb "roughed it" like his men, and 
that he wore a fatigue blouse most of the time. The food was cooked 
nt nigbt for the next day, and the kettles of boiled beef were put into 
the wagons. Major Plumb often appeared at Sherman's wagon to 
get a piece of cold boiled beef, which he ate as he marched. 



INDEPENDENCE — HUMBOLDT — OLATIIE 179 

Plumb had been mustered as Lieutenant-Colonel 
May 17, 18G4. He was sent from Humboldt to Olathe 
by order of August 2, 18G1. There he found the com- 
mutation system of purchasing supplies in use, and he 
changed it, as he had at Humboldt, incurring the dis- 
pleasure of those preying on the Government. But he 
was sustained by Colonel Moonlight, who sent Walker 
to Olathe at Colonel Plumb's request, and Walker was 
there installed as quartermaster and commissary. 6 
Colonel Plumb had command of Oxford and Aubry 
also, and on him depended in large degree the possi- 
bility of a repetition by the guerrillas of the Lawrence 
Massacre. His correspondence, as preserved in the 
official records, shows his activity and vigilance and 
the thanks of the commander of the district for his 
" able, faithful, and patriotic discharge of duty." 7 

c Rebellion Records, Series I, Vol. XL, Part II, p. 526. 

7 J. W. Logan, of St. Louis, Mo., was in the Eleventh Kansas. Of 
the occupation of Humboldt he wrote : 

I knew Senator Plumb before he went into the war. He enlisted 
me. Was a kind officer. He was brave. 

Once we were camped at Humboldt. He was in command of the 
Post. A company of the Fifteenth Kansas relieved our company. 
We had built quarters and spent our own money for them. We tried 
to sell them to this new company, but they would not buy. We 
decided to destroy the property. We tore it down and were burning 
it. Plumb arrived on the scene about that time, and he stopped it, 
and told us not to do that; rather than to destroy it or burn it up, 
we would give it to the poor or to the county. He showed his hu- 
manity there. 

That was not all we did. We had dug a well at our own expense, 
which on leaving, we filled up with rock. When we got on our way, 
and he (Plumb) found out that we filled up that well, he sent an 
order and brought us back and made us take the rock out of the well. 



CHAPTER XXX 

THE PRICE RAID 

The Price raid started from Southern Arkansas. In 
General Kirby Smith's letter of directions to General 
Price, St. Louis was made the objective point, the en- 
listment of recruits the chief end, and the devastation 
of Kansas a special injunction. 1 

The expedition entered Missouri from Pocahontas, 
Arkansas, and was met at Pilot Knob, Missouri, by 
General Thomas Ewing, Jr., of Kansas, and with an in- 
ferior force there detained until the attack on St. Louis 
became impracticable. At Franklin, Missouri, the raid 
turned in the direction of Kansas. 

Major-General Samuel R. Curtis was in command 
of the Department of Kansas, with headquarters at 
Fort Leavenworth. In September, 1864, the frontier 



i See Rebellion Records, Series I, Vol. XLI, Part I, pp. 728-9. None 
of these things was attained. The need of more men west of the 
Mississippi was made most emphatic, but before he had reached 
Jefferson City General Price had decided not to issue a proclamation 
calling for more recruits. — Id. p. G33. 

General Blunt believed the invasion of Kansas to be the real pur- 
pose of the raid. See Id., p. 580-1. While General Price was enjoined 
in explicit terms from pillage, this seems to have been the main 
achievement of the expedition. No other such train of plunder was 
ever gathered in Missouri as General Price collected and did his 
utmost to preserve and carry out with him. It was taken from 
friend and foe alike. This is said on the authority of Shelby and His 
Veil, by Major John N. Edwards, General Shelby's Chief-of-Staff and 
historian of the Shelby brigade. In that work appears a long arraign- 
ment of General Price by Thomas C. Reynolds, then Confederate 
Governor of Missouri. 

180 




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TIIE PRICE RAID 181 

was threatened by Indians. In order to subdue them 
General Curtis had taken to the Plains every soldier 
the border could spare, and, leaving General Blunt to 
continue the campaign there, he returned. He reached 
his headquarters on the 17th of September, when he 
first learned of the approach of General Price. He saw 
the danger to Kansas. General Blunt was called in, 
and Governor Carney was induced to order out the 
Kansas militia. The campaigns for State and national 
elections were in active progress, and, seeing that the 
call for the militia was likely to produce little help be- 
cause of that fact, General Curtis, on the 10th of Octo- 
ber, placed Kansas under martial law ; and on the same 
day he appointed as a member of his staff General 
James H. Lane, then United States Senator. On the 
11th General Blunt arrived at Olathe and assumed 
command of the army, designated the Army of the 
Border. He found Kansas militia assembled to the 
number of twelve thousand (afterward increased to 
sixteen thousand) patriotic men anxious to battle to 
save the State from invasion. But political intrigue 
neutralized the support the militia stood ready to 
render and even made its presence a menace. Governor 
Carney owed his election to General Lane, but had fallen 
under the influence of Lane's political enemies, who were 
bitterly opposed to the re-election of President Lincoln. 
They exerted themselves to the utmost to embarrass 
and render futile every movement of the Union forces. 
In this crisis they came forward and denounced the de- 
mand for militia as a scheme originated by General 
Lane to take the citizens of Kansas out of the State and 
keep them beyond its borders until after the election. 
They pretended to believe these citizens were opposed to 
President Lincoln, that Lane knew it, and their absence 
in the field would enable him to carry the State for the 
President. Governor Carney controlled a newspaper, 
ias did ex-Governor Robinson, and these papers ridiculed 



1S2 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

the possibility of the presence of General Price in 
Missouri. 2 

AY hen it could no longer be denied that General Price 
was moving toward the Kansas border General Carney 
and his adherents insisted that the militia should not 
cross the State-line into Missouri, and that it should 
not be subject to the orders of General Curtis, but 
should remain in Kansas and take orders only from 
Governor Carney and his officers. 3 



- On the 20th of October, after the battle of Lexington, an editorial 
appeared in the LeavenicortJi Conservative, a loyal daily paper, which 
said : 

The Times appears to have discovered the astounding fact that 
Trice and his forces are south of the Arkansas River, and that Jim 
Lane is perpetrating a great humbug upon the volunteers of Kansas. 
. . . The effort upon the part of the Copperheads of Leavenworth 
and upon the Governor's staff, to induce him to order the militia 
home, even without consultation with General Curtis, is one of the 
boldest steps that has yet been put forth by the opposers of the 
administration. . . . The howl of petty politicians that the General 
of a Department is intriguing with Lane for political purposes is 
absurd. 

s See Rebellion Records, Series I, Vol. XLI, Part I, official report 
of General Curtis; also pp. 572-3. General Blunt, on the 16th of 
October, arrested Brigadier-General Fishback and Colonel Snoddy, 
of the militia. In his official report General Blunt says he did not 
inflict on them the death penalty because he knew " that they were 
the instruments selected by the Executive of Kansas, and others, 
their superiors in the military organization, to carry out their 
mischievous and disgraceful designs." General Curtis, in an effort 
to avoid the appearance of harshness, restored Fishback to his com- 
mand. Snoddy's regiment elected James Montgomery Colonel and did 
good service. 

Governor Samuel J. Crawford, then a volunteer on the staff of 
General Curtis, in his Kansas in the Sixties, published in 1911, has 
much to say on this subject Governor Crawford participated in the 
councils of the officers and in the operations in the field, and speaks 
from personal knowledge. He says : 

If, at the proper time, General Curtis had arrested a half dozen 
politicians in the militia-camp and sent them to Fort Leavenworth in 
irons, and at the same time shot one or two militia brigadiers from 
the cannon's mouth, he could have had an invincible army of 15.000 
men — infantry, cavalry and artillery — in line confronting Trice 
when he crossed the Blue on the 22d. But instead most of them 
were away at a distance where they could be of no assistance. ... I 
say that such mutineers should have been put in irons and shot before 
breakfast. 



THE PRICE RAID Js:i 

The appointment of General Blunt to the command 
of the Army of the Border was an incident favorable 
to Colonel Moonlight. He had been Blunt's chief-of- 
staff in 18G2 and had great influence with him. On 
the 12th of October Moonlight sent Plumb the following 
dispatch : 

Paola, Kans., October 12, 1864. 

Colonel Plumb: 

Concentrate your entire command (cavalry) on Blue, a little 
north of Aubry. I will be there to-night. Strike all the tents 
and send them with camp equipage to Olathe, leaving one wagon 
with each company, with rations, such cooking utensils as are 
necessary, and all the ammunition on hand and blankets. Con- 
centrate rapidly. General Blunt desires that you remain at 
Olathe in command, with your staff, etc., until we are ready for 
the fight. I will send for you. You shall have your share, 
certain. 

T. Moonlight, Colonel. 4 

Plumb, then Lieutenant-Colonel, did not escape the 
fate of the officer popular with his men, and jealousy 
of him was sometimes shown. He believed he saw in 
this dispatch an intention to ignore him as far as pos- 
sible in the coming campaign. He sent General Blunt 
the following: 

Olathe, October 12, 1864. 
Major-General Blunt: 

My command is all concentrated on the Blue near the line. 
Fortifications here all completed; guns mounted and manned; 
muskets and ammunition all issued. There seems to be nothing 
further for me to do here. I would respectfully ask permission 
to join my command this evening or early in the morning. 
About 600 Douglas County militia in and many more coming. 

P. B. Plumb, Lieutenant-Colonel. 8 

Blunt referred the matter to General Curtis; and 
riumb was permitted to join his regiment, at the front, 



* See Rebellion Records, Series I, Vol. XLI, Part III, p. 824. 
5 Id. p. 824. 



184 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

and was frequently in command of it during the 
campaign. 

The brigades of the Army of the Border were formed 
at Hickman's Mills on the 15th of October. The Sec- 
ond Brigade was composed of the Eleventh Kansas, two 
companies of the Fifth Kansas, two companies of the 
Sixteenth Kansas, and four mountain howitzers. Col- 
onel Moonlight was put in command of the brigade, and 
on the 16th marched to meet General Price and develop 
his position. Lexington was occupied on the 18th. 
All the forces of Price were rapidly concentrating in. 
that region. As the Union officers were sitting down 
to dinner on the 19th, Captain L. F. Green, Company 
B, Eleventh Kansas, entered and reported that he had 
just been driven in, and that Price's army was at hand. 
General Blunt instantly ordered every officer to horse. 
It was not expected that the Confederate advance could 
long be checked at Lexington. Colonel Moonlight was 
given command of the rear. At midnight, after twelve 
hours of constant battle, the last stand was made at 
the crossing of the Sni, east of Wellington. 6 At nine 



e Of the actions of Plumb in the retreat from Lexington, Captain 
B. F. Simpson gives the best account yet found : 

The rear-guard, under Moonlight, formed in the timber on the hill 
immediately west of Lexington. The Confederates were now in 
range, and fire was opened on them. Many saddles were emptied; 
but it was not the intention of Moonlight to try to hold the hill. He 
did not retreat until the enemy was almost on him, when he took his 
command down the north slope of the hill in good order. Plumb 
and I were among the last to leave the field. The road down the hill 
was worn or cut down into a limestone ledge, and was sunk three or 
four feet into the ledge in some places, and there were perpendicular 
banks or walls on the sides. About half-way down there was a 
square turn to the west, where the walls on either side were about 
six feet high — solid rock. As Plumb and I reached this turn a 
caisson came upon us and tried to make the turn and pass us. It 
cramped and almost turned over, pressing us against the wall at the 
outer corner, and we were unable to extricate ourselves. We were 
pinned and pressed against the wall. 

The Confederates were following us down the hill, and when in 
revolver range opened fire on us. Every minute they came closer, 



THE PRICE RAID 185 

o'clock on the 20th General Blunt's forces took position 
on the west bank of the Little Blue River, eight miles 
northeast of Independence. 

General I Hunt wished to fight a decisive battle at the 
Little Blue. General Pleasanton was pressing Price's 
rear, and if Blunt could have had his way, the Con- 
federate army might have been destroyed at the Little 
Blue. The plans of General Blunt could not be met, 
for Governor Carney and his politicians still insisted 
that General Price was not in Missouri at all, and that 
all the military movements of General Curtis were the 
result of Lane's scheming for political advantage. In 
fact, Governor Carney prepared a proclamation dis- 
banding the militia the very day General Blunt formed 
his line along the Little Blue. 7 



and the bullets were striking on the iron tires of the caisson wheels. 
We thought we were lost, but Moonlight in some way learned of our 
plight and charged up the hill. He drove the rebels back and held 
them until the caisson was taken out and Plumb and I released from 
our perilous position. 

We rode on after our command and were about the last of our 
force. At the crossing of Sni-a-bar Creek, three or four miles east of 
Wellington, there was a bridge. It was an old-fashioned wooden 
structure, boarded up the sides and roofed over with shingles. Just 
east of this bridge we came up with a soldier-boy, mounted and lead- 
ing a horse. Plumb said the bridge ought to be burned, to which I 
agreed. We had matches, and we cut shavings from the timbers and 
tried to start a fire. We had dismounted and given our bridle-reins 
to the boy. The rebels came up and opened fire on us, and the horses 
reared so that the boy could not hold them. Plumb told me to take 
our horses on through the bridge and wait for him until he got the 
fire going. I took the horses to the west of the bridge and led them 
into a depression out of the way of the rebel firing, which was be- 
ginning to be hot. The boy followed me, but I told him to go on and 
not wait for us. The firing was soon so heavy that Plumb could not 
remain on the bridge. The rebels were up to the entrance. It was 
run or be captured, and Plumb came running out at the west end, 
inquiring where the boy was. I told him the boy was safe and away 
ahead. Then we mounted our horses and escaped. The small fire 
Plumb bad been able to start was put out by the rebels, and the bridge 
was not burned. 
7 See the LeavemcortJi Daily Conservative, October 26, 18G4 ; it says : 
The deliberate labored attempt of the Governor, his subalterns, his 



186 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

LITTLE BLUE. 

General Price did not reach the Little Blue until 
the morning of the 21st of October. Because of the 
attitude of Governor Carney, General Curtis did not 
intend that any general engagement should be fought 
there. The Eleventh Kansas had been left at the cross- 
ing with orders to detain the enemy as long as it could 
do so with safety, then burn the bridge and retire in 
the direction of Independence. Colonel Moonlight's re- 
sistance was much more stubborn than had been ex- 
pected of him. He held the line as long as possible, 
setting the bridge on fire and falling back slowly only 
when Price's cavalry had appeared in force on both his 
flanks. At this juncture General Blunt came on the 
field with reinforcements and made an effort to halt the 
advance of General Price. A part of the field taken 
from Moonlight was regained. General Curtis and 
General Lane both went to the front, but Curtis was 
induced to return to Independence. 

All that day Price was slowly pushing Blunt back, 
and it required almost his entire army to do it. General 
Blunt had but thirty-five hundred men of all arms — per- 
haps not so many. They hugged fences, sought skirts of 
timber, utilized ditches and highways, and stood behind 
stone walls. For some time the Eleventh Kansas was out 
of ammunition and held its position by defiant cheers. 8 



satellites, his paid scribblers, and bis unscrupulous adherents, to 
create sedition in the camp, distrust for our Generals, and political 
capital for himself and his motley crew has not failed to attract the 
attention and provoke the unmeasured condemnation of every true 
and honest man. 

The General commanding the Department calls for reinforcements; 
the Governor and his bolting Copperhead crew, while apparently com- 
plying with this request, take pains to tell our soldiers tbere is no 
enemy at the front, and while our soldiers were facing death on the 
field on Thursday, the Governor actually prepared his proclamation 
to disband the militia. 

8 See Rebellion Records, Series I, Vol. XLI, Part I, p. 592, official 
report of Colonel Moonlight. 



THE TRICE RAID 187 

Two miles back from the Little Blue a stand was made 
at the Massey farm. There the Eleventh was fiercely 
attacked, lost a number of men, and Major Ross had a 
horse killed. While supplying the Major with another 
horse, Captain B. F. Simpson saw Plumb with a com- 
pany of skirmishers far out in advance of the battle- 
line. A strong position was taken at the Saunders 
farm, three miles west of Massey 's, and this was held 
uni il night. From this point General Blunt sent Lane 
to Independence to tell Curtis that the Big Blue would 
have to be the line on the 22d. 9 Late at night the Union 
forces crossed the Big Blue and took position in such 
defensive works as had been constructed there. The 
line extended south from the Missouri River to Hick- 
man's Mills along the west bank of the Big Blue River, 
although the main body of the army covered a space 
of some six miles only. 

THE BIG BLUE. 

In 1864 Byram's Ford, on what is now Sixty-first 
Street, Kansas City, was the principal crossing on the 
Big Blue. It was the most important point held by 
the Union army, and it should have been guarded by a 
good soldier. By the intrigues then distracting the 
councils of the Army of the Border, Colonel C. R. Jen- 
nison, Fifteenth Kansas, had secured command of the 
First Brigade, and he was put in command of the troops 
defending Byram's Ford on the morning of the 22d of 
October. 10 About noon he was attacked by a heavy 
force, and before three o'clock he was driven back and 



9 These details were furnished by Captain B. F. Simpson, Paola, 
Kansas. He was first directed to carry the dispatch to General 
Curtis, but General Lane believed that some other man should be 
sent, Simpson being then boyish in appearance. Lane was sent to 
confer with Curtis. 

io Jennison had been commissioned Colonel of the Seventh Kansas 
by Governor Robinson in the fall of 1861. His murderous forays 
and plundering proclivities coming to the attention of the authorities, 
he was forced to resign in March, 1862. So proficient was he in lift- 



188 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

lost the key to the Union position. His failure to hold 
Byrani's Ford lost the day to General Curtis, as its cap- 
ture turned the right flank of his army, crushed the 
right wing and caused it to take a new position just 
outside of Kansas City. General Price camped on the 
south side of Brush Creek, a small stream running east 
a mile south of Westport. 

The Eleventh Kansas was holding a ford above that 
guarded by Colonel Jennison. Seeing the Confederate 
army pouring through the gap made in the line by his 
defeat, and, knowing there was nothing to prevent its 
entering Kansas, Colonel Moonlight marched by double- 
quick to the State-line, south of Westport. There he 
formed to check the Confederate advance. Colonel 
Plumb with four companies of the Eleventh Kansas 
drove back Jackman's brigade, and did it in a manner 
that called forth compliments from all who saw it. It 
was dusk. In speaking of it many years later Colonel 
Moonlight said: 

This charge was under the immediate command of Lieutenant- 
Colonel Plumb, of the Eleventh Kansas Cavalry, with one wing 
of the regiment, and it was one of the neatest and prettiest 
movements of the campaign. The charge was made with a line 
almost as straight as on dress parade, and with a dash and vim, 
the boys cheering as they flew along the prairie into the ranks 
of the enemy. 11 

This charge was considered an event in the annals 
of the Eleventh Kansas, and is thus described by a 
comrade of Colonel Plumb : 12 



ing live-stock that the pedigree of many a horse found in Kansas in 
that day was tersely expressed in " out of Missouri hy Jennison." 
After the Lawrence Massacre Governor Carney, then under the 
influence of those opposed to General Lane and to the reelection of 
President Lincoln, commissioned Jennison Colonel of the Fifteenth 
Kansas. This same influence pushed him to the front in the cam- 
paign against General Price. He was a Federal guerrilla. 

u Letter in the Leavenworth Standard, December 3. 1881. 

12 Walter Wellhouse, Company A, Eleventh Kansas, Secretary 
Kansas Department of Horticulture. 



TIIE PRICE RAID 189 

Jackman's brigade was marching through the gap and had to 
be stopped else the Confederate army would pour over the State- 
line into Kansas. To check this advance was now the work of 
the Eleventh Kansas. The Confederates marched steadily north- 
west until they came in view of the Eleventh. At that instant 
Colonel Plumb with four companies was beginning his advance 
towards the rebels. Seeing this the Confederates stopped short 
and formed a line of battle facing Plumb, who took his men 
across the State-line to a little valley running parallel with the 
rebel line. There he turned up the valley, and when his men 
were directly opposite the enemy, he halted them, faced about, 
formed his line and charged up the hill, his men cheering and 
firing at will after the first volley. The flashes of Plumb's guns 
were like fireflies on a damp night in summer. Jackman's bri- 
gade was swept from the field, and no further attempt was made 
by the enemy in that quarter. 

WESTPORT. 

General Curtis was greatly discouraged by the result 
of the battle of the Big Blue; it proved that little of 
the Kansas militia would be permitted by Governor 
Carney and his advisers to fight under Federal officers. 

In the hope that he might secure better results by 
fighting on Kansas soil Curtis decided in the afternoon 
of the 22d to retire across the Kansas River at night; 
and he then sent his ammunition and supply trains to 
Wyandotte, now Kansas City, Kansas. Later he crossed 
the line himself 13 and was found in camp six miles 
west of Wyandotte. From this point he was prevailed 



13 Among other proof on this point, of which there is much, is the 
statement of Charles Waring, of Manhattan, Kansas, June 21, 1910. 
Waring was in Company G, Eleventh Kansas. At the time of the 
Price raid he was serving in the band of General Curtis. This band 
furnished the music at the funeral of Major J. Nelson Smith, Second 
Colorado, who was killed in the battle at Little Blue, and buried 
Saturday afternoon, October 22d, in a cemetery between Westport 
and Kansas City. General Curtis attended the funeral, but left be- 
fore the ceremonies were ended, ordering the band to follow him to 
Wyandotte. At Wyandotte he could not be found, and the band fol- 
lowed him out to the " Six-mile House." on the Leavenworth road, 
where he was found in camp. Waring says that from that time the 
men had little confidence in General Curtis. 



190 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

on to return late at night to Kansas City for a council 
of war with his officers. This council opposed the re- 
treat into Kansas, as it meant for one thing that Kansas 
City would be looted if not sacked ; but General Curtis 
held out long for that action. He was not so much to 
blame. lie had about four thousand volunteer troops 
and some sixteen thousand Kansas militia, the latter so 
hampered that it had been able to render little service. 
The fighting had been done principally by the volunteers. 
He had no hope of better results in future fighting with 
the militia officers acting independently of his orders, 
each regiment for itself. That afternoon Colonel Sandy 
Lowe, Twenty-first Militia, had stood by and seen Colonel 
Veale's regiment cut to pieces, not daring to aid his 
fellow-officer in the absence of express orders. The 
politicians about Governor Carney were urging General 
Curtis to fall back into Kansas, promising active support 
if he would do so. Curtis was an old man. He was 
loyal and patriotic, but the incessant intrigue of Carney 
and his associates had told on him. He did not believe 
his little force of volunteer troops could hold Price in 
check, and he counted very little on the militia outside 
of Kansas. If he had asserted himself, suppressed the 
Kansas politicians, and assumed vigorous command of 
the militia he could have defeated Price. He knew this, 
and also knew that he had a perfect right to do it, 
martial law being in effect and the laws of Kansas 
suspended. But he could not bring himself to the point 
of resisting Governor Carney. 

The first decision of the council of war was to re- 
treat, but General Curtis was finally prevailed on to 
stand his ground and have his trains return from 
Wvandotte. This result was not reached, however, un- 
-til it had been decided by the officers to arrest General 
Curtis and put General Blunt in command of the army. 

When the movements for the following day had been 
determined by the council it was dissolved. Then 



THE PRICE RAID 101 

Carney and his advisers fell on General Curtis with 
such vigor that he promised them he would retreat into 
Kansas early Sunday morning; and he actually went to 
Westport to order the retreat. He found the battle in 
progress. General Blunt would not order a retreat with 
the troops under fire, and General Curtis did not do so. 
The co-operation of the greater part of the militia was 
lost, though it was anxious to a man to go into battle, 
those who secured the opportunity doing good service, 
demonstrating that victories rather than defeats could 
have been won had Governor Carney and his politicians 
been suppressed early in the campaign. 

The attack on Price on Sunday was without much 
order and unity of action. About noon General Pleas- 
anton arrived on the field in the rear of the Confed- 
erate army, and had General Curtis made the proper 
effort General Price's army could have been destroyed. 
When Price turned to retreat and the day was won Gov- 
ernor Carney and his militia officers became very en- 
thusiastic and displayed great anxiety for the battle. 

The Eleventh Kansas had been issued rations and 
ammunition early Sunday morning; for late Saturday 
night Captain B. F. Simpson had placed a cocked pistol 
at the ear of a disloyal pilot and forced him to take a 
boat to Wyandotte and bring a cargo of supplies for 
that purpose, before the return of the trains to the Mis- 
souri side. The position of the Eleventh on Sunday 
was on the extreme right of the Army of the Border, 
south of Westport, where it pushed a rebel force rapidly 
down the State-line road ; but it was not properly sup- 
ported. Colonel Moonlight sounded the recall for 
Colonel Plumb, who was far in the advance with his men. 
If the Eleventh had been supported it would have been 
exactly opposite General Pleasanton when he came on 
the field, and the Confederate army would have been 
within the Union lines with escape very difficult, if not 
impossible. 



192 THE LIFE OP PRESTON B. PLUMB 

With the appearance of Pleasant on the spell of stu- 
pidity was broken. Relieved of the incubus of Governor 
Carney and his advisers, General Curtis showed some 
of his* old-time spirit. The Eleventh was thrown for- 
ward to keep abreast of Price's army to prevent the 
entrance into Kansas of any part of it on the retreat. 
This it accomplished as to the towns. It saved Mound 
City after a severe engagement and it reached Fort 
Scott only a few minutes ahead of a Confederate force 
sent to destroy it. As the Eleventh entered the town 
it was met by the people and received with cheers. 
"The Star Spangled Banner" was sung as the Old 
Flag was borne into the public square. 

The Eleventh was in pursuit of Price to the Arkansas 
River. From Fort Smith it returned to Kansas through 
the Ozark Mountains of Northwest Arkansas. At Fort 
Smith the horses had broken into a cane-brake; eating 
the hard stalks of cane caused the death of some two 
hundred and fifty of them; and this number of men 
were compelled to march on foot. There was much 
rain and wet snow to march through. The country 
had been stripped by the Confederates on their retreat 
and supplied little for man or beast. Horses died on 
the road, thus constantly augmenting the column march- 
ing on foot. Colonel Plumb fared no better than his 
men, but he cheered and encouraged them. The first 
service of the Eleventh had been in this rugged region 
in 1862, and this march was a repetition of the hard 
experience of those days. 

The regiment arrived at Paola December 12, after a 
campaign of exactly two months. 



CHAPTER XXXI 

WYOMING 

On the return of the Eleventh Kansas from the pur- 
suit of Price's army, Colonel Plumb resumed his com- 
mand at Olathe. Colonel Moonlight was appointed, on 
the 21st of December, 1864, to the command of the 
District of Colorado, headquarters at Denver, and took 
command January 4, 18G5. Upon the departure of Col- 
onel Moonlight the command of the District of Southern 
Kansas was given to Colonel Plumb. 

By special order, January 18, 1865, the Eleventh 
Kansas was assigned to duty in the District of the 
Upper Arkansas, and Colonel Plumb was ordered to 
report with the regiment to Colonel J. H. Ford, at Fort 
Riley, which he did about the first of February. 

The cause of the removal of Union troops to the 
Plains early in 1865 was the hostility of the Indians. 
Following the barbarous practice of the British in the 
Revolution, the Confederacy sought to turn the fury of 
the savages upon the frontier. 1 The Overland Stage 
had been established from the Missouri River to Cali- 
fornia. The route up the Platte River was used by this 
line, and in the summer of 1864 it was closed by the 
Indians. In a strenuous campaign, extending far into 
the winter, General R. B. Mitchell succeeded in reopen- 
ing the line, but it was seen that the forces would have 
to be increased in all the Platte country. On the 11th 



i In proof of this see Rebellion Records generally. In 1863 many 
men were sent to the Western tribes. One such expedition was wiped 
out by loyal Osages in Southern Kansas. See Kansas Historical Col- 
lections Vol. VIII, p. 62. Also The Indian War of 1864, by E. F. Ware. 

193 



194 TriE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

of February, 1805, Colonel Plumb, then at Fort Riley, 
was ordered to proceed with bis regiment to Fort 
Kearny. 2 Tbe regiment left Fort Riley on the 20th of 
February. The bad weather of all the previous cam- 
paigns of the Eleventh was surpassed in this march to 
Fort Kearnv. One-third of the men were on foot, and 
half of tbem were poorly clothed. A cold rain began 
on the morning of the 21th, turning to sleet and snow. 
The men were soon covered with ice. The supply train 
could not advance, and the troops bunched on the prairie 
and stood the night through. The trains were moved 
by cavalrymen pulling by ropes fastened to their saddles. 
The stormy weather continued until the regiment ar- 
rived at Fort Kearny, on the 4th of March, twelve days 
out from Fort Riley. 

Two days only were allowed the regiment at Fort 
Kearny. The first day the horses were shod and sup- 
plies drawn for the remainder of the march. The sec- 
ond was for inspection, which was made by General 
Mitchell, and notwithstanding the hard march from 
Fort Riley, the regiment was complimented for its fine 
appearance. 3 

The regiment left Fort Kearny for Fort Laramie on 



2 See Rebellion Records, Series I, Vol. XLVIII, Part I, p. 822. 
Colonel Ford says that Colonel Plumb had 864 men. No additional 
horses could be had at Fort Riley, and many of the regiment marched 
across the Plains on foot. 

3 In The Indian War of 1864, by Captain E. F. Ware, the author 
falls into an error. At page 553 he gives an account of hunting the 
Sixteenth Kansas, commanded by Colonel Plumb, which had left Fort 
Leavenworth for Fort Kearny, but which had not arrived. The 
Sixteenth Kansas was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel 
Walker — never by Colonel Plumb. It was found at Pawnee City, 
Nebraska. It lay more than a month in that region, not being able 
to move, though the Eleventh made the trip from Fort Riley to Fort 
Laramie during that time. Captain Ware must have met the 
Eleventh In his search for the Sixteenth, and in the forty-seven years 
Which Intervened the commanders became confused in his mind. The 
Eleventh marched north from Fort Riley and was never in the 
vicinity of Pawnee City. 



WYOMING 195 

the 7th of March. Bad as had been the weather from 
Fort Riley, it was mild compared with that encountered 
on the march up the Platte. One blizzard followed an- 
other. Many suffered from frozen feet and limbs, 
among 1 them Colonel Plumb. Often men were lost in 
the terrible storms of wind-driven snow and had to be 
hunted by details made for the purpose. There was no 
wood for fires at night, and dismal camps were made in 
the snow. The regiment camped a few days on Lodge 
Pole Creek to await the arrival of horses coming from 
Fort Leavenworth for the dismounted men. These 
horses were crossed at Julesburg. The South Platte 
was full of floating ice. Colonel Plumb and Thomas 
Barber rode into the river ahead of the herd and were 
twice carried into deep water, where they narrowly es- 
caped drowning. When they arrived at the camp their 
clothing was frozen stiff, and there was no wood for a 
fire. Their lives were saved by covering them heavily 
with blankets. The regiment was halted at the old 
Sioux Agency, thirty miles east of Fort Laramie, while 
General Mitchell was turning over command of the 
District to General Connor. 

The Eleventh arrived at Fort Laramie on the 9th 
of April, but did not halt, being ordered on to Platte 
Bridge, one hundred and thirty miles to the northwest, 
where headquarters were established. Colonel Plumb 
was expected to guard the Old Oregon Trail from Fort 
Laramie to the South Pass, a distance of nearly three 
hundred miles. Along this trail there was a telegraph! 
line which required attention, as the Indians were con- 
stantly cutting it. And it was his duty to see that the 
Indians did not cross to the south of the North Platte. 
The Trail formerly passed up the north bank of the 
river, but in 18G5 it had been changed to the south side 
to Platte Bridge. The crossing of the North Platte 
had been first at the mouth of Deer Creek, thirty miles 
east of Platte Bridge, where an old bridge still stood. 



196 THE LIFE OP PRESTON B. PLUMB 

Here there was a station, and the floor of the bridge 
was removed for spaces of several feet in two or three 
places to prevent the Indians using it. The other sta- 
tions east to Fort Laramie were La Prelle Creek, La 
Bonte and Horseshoe. West from Platte Bridge were 
the stations of Red Buttes and Sweetwater, the latter 
near the mouth of the stream of that name. Up the 
Sweetwater were stage stations, but no stations for 
troops east of South Pass. 

Trails up the Arkansas, the Smoky Hill, and the 
South Platte met at Denver. From Denver to Fort 
Laramie the trail passed St. Vrain's Fort, where it 
crossed the South Platte, ascended Cache La Poudre 
Creek to Fort Collins, held a north course to Fort Wal- 
bach at Cheyenne Pass, at the head of Lodge Pole Creek, 
and thence down a branch of the Laramie to Fort Lar- 
amie. From Fort Collins the trail turned a little to 
the west and crossed the head branches of the Laramie 
and the Medicine Bow, on through Bridger's Pass to 
Green River; this was sometimes called the Bridger 
Trail. Fort Halleck was built in 1863, on this road, 
west of Medicine Bow Range. The Overland Stage 
passed over this route. The road up the North Platte 
was used much by emigrants and freighters. The cam- 
paign was for the purpose of keeping these routes open 
and the telegraph lines in operation; and to the east- 
ward was added the protection of settlers and ranch- 
men. 

Colonel Plumb established regimental headquarters 
at Camp Dodge about seven miles out from Platte 
Bridge, near the foothills of the Laramie Range, where 
wood and water were at hand. Major Adams was sent 
with Companies D and L to Deer Creek. Company I 
was sent to Sweetwater station, fifty miles to the west, 
and Company H was soon added to his force. The ra- 
tions at Fort Laramie were found sufficient for only 
twenty days, and were expected to last through the 



WYOMING 197 

summer. And ammunition for the carbines carried by 
the Eleventh had not arrived from Fort Leavenworth. 
Under these discouraging circumstances Colonel Plumb 
entered on the discharge of his arduous and dangerous 
duties. 

Colonel Moonlight found his position at Denver irk- 
some and unsatisfactory and applied for a place requir- 
ing more activity. In compliance with this request he 
was put in command at Fort Laramie. There, on May 
3d, he organized an expedition to Wind River to dis- 
perse a camp of Cheyennes supposed to be in the valley 
of that stream. As this camp was said to contain three 
hundred lodges Moonlight believed that to defeat and 
disperse it would give peace to the Overland trails. 
He took with him five hundred cavalry, of the Eleventh 
Kansas, Eleventh Ohio, and Seventh Iowa, and reached 
the Wind River country on the 12th. The scouts could 
find no sign of recent Indian occupations, and the ex- 
pedition returned without accomplishing anything. 
Colonel Plumb commanded the troops of the Eleventh 
Kansas. The Indians followed Moonlight closely on his 
return, and by depredations soon made their presence 
known at many stations along the telegraph line. 

Two hundred Indians attacked Deer Creek station 
on the 20th of May, and were repulsed, seven of them 
being killed, but they captured twenty -six cavalry horses. 
With thirty men Colonel Plumb pursued the Indians 
and killed one of them, but could not recover the horses. 

On June 3d six Indians appeared on the bank opposite 
the post at Platte Bridge and made efforts to have 
troops pursue them. A messenger was sent to Camp 
Dodge to apprise Colonel Plumb who, ordering thirty 
men to follow him at once, set out alone for the post. 
As he rode from camp private Wellhouse took out his 
watch to time the ride to the bridge — seven miles away 
and in plain view from the camp. Plumb went at his 
utmost speed, sinking out of sight in the depressions and 



198 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

rising to view on the swells lying across the road. He 
drew rein at the post twenty-one minutes after leaving 
Camp Dodge. At the bridge he took ten men and pur- 
sued the Indians, making a hard run of five miles before 
coming within range, when he opened fire, killing a horse 
and wounding two Indians. Half of Colonel Plumb's 
men had fallen behind, seeing which the Indians turned 
and charged, but they were received with a volley which 
sent them back. As they fled sixty Indians came into 
view and charged down Dry Creek, half a mile to the 
left, with the purpose of cutting off Plumb and his 
few men, but at that moment the men from Camp 
Dodge came in sight, and the Indians changed their 
plan. Some of them fled to the right and were pursued 
by seven soldiers, whom they led into ambush where 
two were killed. Night coming on the pursuit was 
abandoned, and Plumb returned to Platte Bridge. 

On June 11th Colonel Moonlight ordered some Indian 
troops and their families taken to Julesburg. These 
mutinied at Horse Creek and escaped after fighting the 
escort, in which they were aided by many hostile In- 
dians who had all the time been in touch with them. 
On hearing this Colonel Moonlight started, with a force 
made up of California, Ohio, and Kansas troops, to 
punish the Indians. After a hard ride of two days he 
halted at Dead Man's Fork to get breakfast and allow 
the horses to graze. About ten o'clock two hundred 
Indians appeared and stampeded the horses, of which 
seventy-four were lost, including that of Colonel Moon- 
light. The expedition could do nothing but return to 
Fort Laramie, one hundred and twenty miles distant. 
The saddles were burned and the men took up the march, 
Colonel Moonlight and the others without horses, on 
foot. It was mostly the California troops who lost their 
horses; they had served under General Connor, to whom 
they complained, showing that they had protested 
against turning the horses out to graze. General Cod- 






WYOMING 199 

nor ordered Colonel Moonlight to Fort Leavenworth to 
be mustered out. 

After the discharge of Colonel Moonlight Governor 
Crawford commissioned Plumb Colonel of the Eleventh 
Kansas, but as the renewal of the order to muster out 
cavalry regiments was made about that time lie was 
never mustered in as Colonel. 

In history the year 1865 is known as the bloody year 
on the Plains. The Indians appeared in great force 
along the Bridger Trail, then the Overland Stage Line. 
By the middle of June many stations had been burned, 
the stage horses driven off and travel stopped. On the 
11th of June General Connor, by telegraph, ordered 
Colonel Plumb to take Companies A, B, F, L and M, 
of his regiment, proceed to Fort Halleck, and reopen the 
line. Colonel Plumb arrived at Fort Halleck on the 
24th of June, and at once distributed his troops from 
Fort Collins to Green River, about four hundred miles. 
For two hundred miles of this distance the Indians had 
driven off all the stage-horses, and these had not been 
replaced by the Overland Company. Colonel Plumb had 
to use his cavalry horses to haul coaches, and as the 
drivers had left the line because of the danger from 
Indians, soldiers were detailed as drivers. No trip was 
made without seeing Indians, and often they were en- 
countered in large numbers. The distance to be pro- 
tected was so great and the troops so few in number 
that large escorts for the coaches could not be furnished, 
ten men being the maximum force at any station. The 
coaches were often run only at night. The attacks of 
Indians were successfully met, and the stage line main- 
tained through all difficulties. The Overland Com- 
pany was astonished that communication was preserved. 
Colonel Plumb displayed so much ability in this work 
that Ben Holladay, owner of the Overland Company, 
urged him to retire from the army and become manager 
of the Overland lines from the Missouri River to the 



200 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

Pacific Coast. The terra for which Colonel Plumb had 
enlisted expired with the close of the war, but he rejected 
the flattering offer. He would not leave his regiment 
while it stood in such danger as it faced at that time. 
But here in the Rocky Mountains in the management! 
for the Government of the Overland line, beset withi 
perils and almost unsurmountable difficulties, Colonel I 
Plumb took his first lessons in the management of ai 
great enterprise. 

On the 26th day of July, 18G5, was fought the battle of' 
Platte Bridge. A number of the Eleventh Kansas were 1 
massacred by the Indians and the station was in peril. 
Major Martin Anderson was in command. 

On the 13th of August the Eleventh Kansas was re- 
lieved from service and ordered to Fort Leavenworth 
to be mustered out, its term having in fact expired with 
the close of the war, when it would have been mustered I 
out, by direction of the Secretary of War, but for the 
order of General Connor. 

Most of the Eleventh Kansas were mustered out at 
Fort Leavenworth about the middle of September, 18G5. 
On their way from the mountains to that post they 
were dismounted at Fort Kearny, as their horses were 
much needed by General Connor. This made it neces- 
sary to march from Fort Kearny to Fort Leavenworth 
on foot, and was regarded as unfair, and caused dis- 
satisfaction. Colonel Plumb made every effort to have 
the order countermanded, but without success. He 
then hired wagons in which the sick were taken to> 
Fort Leavenworth. 

In the Adjutant General's report, State of Kansas, 
1867, at page 220 in the Official Military History of 
Kansas Regiments, is the following: 

(By Telec.rapit from Fort Laramie, September 3, 1SG5.) 
To TAeut.-Col. Plumb, Fort Kearny: 

You are about to leave this District, and before you do so >' 
these headquarters desire to thank you for the energy and ability 



WYOMING 201 

you have always manifested in the discharge of your duties. 
Less than this could not well be said and do justice to you. 
By command of Brigadier-General Connor. 

George F. Price, 
Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General. 



CHAPTER XXXII 

PLUMB AS A SOLDIER 



. 



No better regiment than the Eleventh Kansas was i 
the armies of the Union. It was composed of farmers . 
and of mechanics from the shops in small towns. They 
enlisted from a sense of duty. 

The regiment received its baptism at Cane Hill. It 
kept even pace with the cavalry to Prairie Grove. On . 
that bloody field it withstood terrible assaults on the 
Union lines. It waded Cove Creek eighteen hours in 
pursuit of Hindman. It fought guerrillas along the 
border. It stood across the path of General Price at 
Lexington and Little Blue. It checked and turned the 
Confederates after the Union defeat at Byram's Ford. 
It crossed the Plains in terrible winter storms. At 
Platte Bridge a detachment of it held the Indians in 
check and saved the day. It operated the Overland 
Stage line along the Bridger Trail and maintained ' 
communication between the Missouri River and the Pa- 
cific Coast. Through it all — in the Ozarks, on the 
border, across the Plains, and in the Rocky Mountains 
— this regiment was an example of patriotism. 

Colonel Plumb was the representative man of the 
Eleventh Kansas. He was not in the army because he 
loved war, but because his country called him. His 
sole desire was to see the struggle brought to a close at 
the earliest moment. He contributed to that end by a 
strenuous devotion to duty, which he performed with 
modesty. He had great influence in his regiment, for 

202 



PLUMB AS A SOLDIER 203 

lie loved men and had faith in them. By nature he 
was sympathetic and helpful. He was democratic and 
unconventional, and the humblest man could enter his 
presence with full assurance of receiving attention to 
any matter he might wish to present. Plumb relied on 
the manhood and patriotism of his soldiers. He knew 
that the same purpose which moved him caused them to 
enlist in the armv. He understood them. Between 
them and himself there was a bond of sympathy. He 
bore manv of the burdens of the Eleventh Kansas. A 
comrade, speaking on this point, once said: x 

I was regimental postmaster. There was no provision to 
furnish the soldiers with stamps for their letters, and they were 
constantly writing to their wives and children. A letter could 
pass through the mails if it contained the frank of a commis- 
sioned officer. Hundreds of these letters were brought to Major 
! Plumb for his frank. I have known him to remain up until 
; three o'clock in the morning writing his frank on them. Every 
: day he would have as many as a hundred — often several hun- 
i dred if any movement of the troops had been ordered. He had 
; to write his name and rank on each letter. He could never be 
prevailed on to leave a portion of this work for the next day, 
: always saying that some anxious wife or mother would be pain- 
. fully disappointed to receive no letter, when the neighbors re- 

• ceived theirs. 

Plumb always stood for the soldier both in and after the war. 

i He was our companion and our friend. He never failed us. 

He always retained his interest in us and his love for us. The 

Eleventh Kansas was the pride of his life, and he felt a brother's 

• relation to every man in it. 

Colonel Plumb was a resourceful soldier. Difficult 
and dangerous marches of the Eleventh were generally 
under his direction. Incidents illustrating this are 
many. One of his men says : 2 

When the army got into the Spring Eiver country of South- 
west Missouri heavy rains set in and the streams were overflow- 
ing their banks, making it very difficult for the army to cross 



i Stephen H. Fairfield, Company K. Eleventh Kansas. 
2 John Warner, Company G, Eleventh Kansas. 



204 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

them. Plumb was with the men in the advance, and would ride 
into the streams and explore them, and would mount men on 
his horse behind him and carry them over. All the bridging 
was done under his direction. 

Plumb was sympathetic in temperament and felt deeply for 
his men when they had to undergo any hardships. The Eleventh 
was an infantry regiment at first, and I have seen Major Plumb 
carrying the guns of half a dozen men at one time on a march. 
These men were not well or were lame and could not march 
rapidly. Plumb, an officer, was mounted, and he would carry 
knapsacks and guns for the sick men. 

Speaking generally of Colonel Plumb as an officer, 
one of his soldiers said : 3 

Plumb was with the regiment almost all the time. He had 
great solicitude for the soldiers under him and was in complete 
accord and sympathy with them. He had no pride of rank 
that would suffer him to erect any official barrier between him- 
self and his men. He fared as they did in rain or shine, sleet 
or snow. He was always looking out for their interest and com- 
fort. He was never a red-tape officer. He took his share of 
every hardship his men had to endure. 

The love Plumb bore his comrades may be illustrated 
by the case of one Moore. Plumb retained an interest 
in his bank after he was elected Senator. Moore bor- 
rowed money from the bank, securing the same by mort- 
gage on his cattle. Calamity struck him, and he left 
the country. When the cattle were counted some were 
missing and the bank lost some money. Moore was 
seized in the Panhandle country and brought back to 
Emporia for trial. He appealed to Plumb, who wrote 
one of the leading criminal lawyers in the State to 
defend Moore ; and the defense w 7 as successful. For the 
attorney managed to let the jury know that Senator 
Plumb did not desire a conviction. In such cases 
Plumb usually paid the debt for the delinquent, and in 
many instances extended him additional aid. It was 



» Robert J. Harper, Manhattan, Kansas. 



PLUMB AS A SOLDIER 205 

not in his heart to see an old soldier suffer for mere 
misfortune. 4 

A member of riumb's old company retained a vivid 
recollection of the march of the Eleventh from Fort 
Riley to Fort Laramie : 5 

We arrived in Ft. Kearny on the 4th of March and "were 
ordered to prepare for the march to Fort Laramie on the 7th. 
All went well for four days, then came rain, sleet and high 
winds. After three days of miserable weather we camped in 
a cedar thicket after marching twenty miles before breakfast 
through sleet and snow. That night about two hundred men 
lined up before the Colonel's tent and begged him to let us rest 
a full day in this sheltered spot, as many of the men were with- 
out horses and had to walk. His reply was : " A good soldier 
will always obey orders, and mine were received yesterday by 
telegraph to continue our march to Julesburg at the best pos- 
sible speed. "While I sympathize with you in this, the hardest 
march of your service, I beg you to help me fully obey the order 
from our commanding officer. I will let those on foot use my 
two horses while I walk to Julesburg." One man said : 
" Colonel, I can't ride your horse and see you walking." Major 
Anderson, one of the principal petitioners for a day of rest, re- 
plied to Colonel Plumb as follows : " Colonel, the Lord is going 
to give us a fine day to-morrow, and we will have reveille at three 
in the morning and resume our march by daybreak." 

We crossed the river at Julesburg and remained there until 
one hundred and ninety-eight horses came from Leavenworth 
to remount those who had lost their horses in the Price raid. 
Colonel and I were at Julesburg when the horses came in, with 
twenty of our men driving them. The river was wide, and 
slush ice was running, which made it a fearful-looking stream 
to cross. It had suddenly turned very cold. There were only 
ten bags of corn for the twenty-five cavalry of Captain Murphy 
at Julesburg Station, and the Colonel said our horses must be 
taken across. He offered $50 for a pilot. Murphy's men had 
crossed many times, but not one of them w r ould try it now. The 
Colonel said to me : " You and I have the best horses and are 
both accustomed to swimming Kansas rivers. Let us try." 



* Compiled from statement of F. A. Brogan, a lawyer in Omaha, 
Nebraska, who formerly lived in Emporia and knew the circumstances. 

s Thomas Barber. The account is taken from a letter written by 
Barber to his father from Fort Laramie, June 8, 1SG5. 



206 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

Turning to Captain Murphy, he ordered him and his men to 
help our men drive the horses in after us, which they did. The 
first plunge was about one hundred feet from the shore, but 
by keeping our horses headed up the stream they reached a shoal 
in about fifty feet, when the Colonel motioned the boys to go 
farther downstream and avoid the hole we got into. Then we 
got along very well till we got almost to the north bank, where 
a deep channel had recently been cut out about one hundred feet 
wide. This took us and all the loose horses into swimming 
water, but the drivers escaped by going lower down. When we 
got to our camp we were all covered with ice, and there was no 
fire. We were pulled from our horses and carried into tents 
and covered with blankets. 

Henry E. Palmer, a prominent citizen of Omaha, was 
Captain of Company A, Eleventh Kansas. He paid 
high tribute to Colonel Plumb, both as man and soldier, 
saying : 

I saw Plumb constantly in the campaign in Arkansas, and at 
the battles of Cane Hill and Prairie Grove. Plumb was a tall 
and very slim young man, with a pale face, and seemed to have 
suffered from consumption. But he was able to do more office 
work as Chief-of-Staff, and more hard riding, than any other 
man I knew in the army. He was brave in battle, for I saw 
him and particularly noticed him at Prairie Grove. 

I married Betty Houck, of Westport, Mo. When the Eleventh 
Kansas was ordered to the Plains I made an effort to be allowed 
to remain at home until the birth of our baby, but could not 
secure that leave. I left home on the 16th of February and the 
child was born on the 18th. A messenger was sent after me 
to Fort Eiley, but did not come up with me. I left for Fort 
Kearny with my men. The weather was frightfully cold, and 
the roads were blocked with snow and ice. We did not get to 
Fort Kearny until the 4th of March. There was then a telegraph 
line to Fort Kearny and beyond. I had directed my wife to 
telegraph me at Fort Kearny. I went into the telegraph office 
and was handed a telegram from my father-in-law saying both 
wife and baby were dead. The shock was awful. I went out 
and met Plumb and General Mitchell. Plumb knew something 
had happened, for I was weeping, and he asked me what it was. 
I handed him the telegram. Plumb read it, steadied himself a 
minute, then burst into tears. He did not try to conceal his 
sorrow. I said I was going to the stage office and take the 



PLUMB AS A SOLDIER 207 

stage home, even if I were hanged for it. General Mitchell said 
I must not do it as the Secretary of War had ordered that no 
man have any leave. But I went on to the stage office. Plumb 
went with me and did not try to dissuade me from going home. 
At Leavenworth I found an order for me to aid the court- 
martial boards there, and this order I believe was the result of 
Colonel Plumb's efforts in my behalf. 

These are some of the things which gave Plumb that 
place in the affection of his men which no other officer 
of his regiment had. He bound his men to him by ties 
which were broken only in death. 

Major Thomas J. Anderson, of Topeka, was the son 
of Major Martin Anderson, of the Eleventh Kansas, 
and he gave this instance of the enduring affection of 
Plumb and his men for one another. Once Plumb was 
to address the old soldiers at an encampment at Topeka. 
Major Martin Anderson decided to surprise his old 
comrade. He got all the Eleventh Kansas soldiers into 
line and marched them to the station. Plumb got off 
the train in a hurry, as he always did, and ran against 
the line. There stood his old regiment. He knew per- 
sonally every man. He was overcome with emotion. 
He could not restrain his feelings, and wept. It was 
some time before he could speak. " And," said Major 
Anderson, " no one ever loved his men more than Plumb 
loved his regiment. And they worshiped him." 

If the purpose of war is pomp and glory — if military 
fame rests on the ruthless driving of men regardless of 
consequences or feeling — if war is to be regarded as the 
proper field for intrigue for personal aggrandizement 
— if military reputation consists in acquiescence in 
these principles and their practice — Colonel Plumb 
was not a good soldier. 

If, on the other hand, war may be engaged in to up- 
hold our country and sustain our flag — if it is patriotic 
to battle for that destiny which our forefathers defined 
for us — if it is the duty of the soldier to disregard self 



208 TIIE LIFE OF TFvESTON B. TLUMB 

and personal ambition in the service of his country — 
if it is to be expected that a soldier is to discharge every 
duty with that fidelity which alone can satisfy con- 
science — if it counts to act with true courage on every 
battlefield — if military reputation must rest on devo- 
tion, bravery, humanity — then Colonel Plumb was a 
good soldier. 



CHAPTER XXXIII 

BACK TO CIVIL LIFE 

While at Fort Riley preparing for the campaign in 
the Rocky Mountains, Plumb was visited by his brother 
George, whom he urged to join him, saying that service 
in the Union army was the only legitimate business for 
loyal men as long as a foe to the Government remained 
in the field. The brother urged his term of three years 
from which he had just been discharged; also that he 
was needed at home. Then Colonel Plumb proposed 
that they form a partnership to engage in farming and 
stock-raising, which was agreed to. 

Plumb arrived at home in September, 18G5. He 
lived first with his brother George, a tenant on the 
farm keeping house. They worked hard during the day 
and talked over prospects and plans at night. 

At this time two pieces of land comprised almost all 
the real property of Colonel Plumb. Of his one-fifth 
interest in the Emporia Town Company, he had but two 
lots left, most of the others having been given to en- 
terprises to benefit the town or to the poor. The value 
of all his property did not exceed three thousand dol- 
lars. But he saw a rosy future. To a friend he said : ' 

There is going to be a chance to make some money in the 
next five or ten years which neither of ns may ever have again. 
I have determined to avail myself of it. I shall devote all my 
energy and powers to securing my share of it. We have had a 
good time as boys together in Emporia ; now we are men, and it 



i Article of Jacob Stotler, Memorial Volume, p. 26. 

209 



210 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

is time for us to do something for ourselves. I shall pursue 
this course, and I advise you to do the same. 

Raising cattle was the principal industry of the coun- 
try to the south and west of Emporia. The area of 
pasturage was unlimited. There were few settlers be- 
yond Emporia, and an adjacent county extended to the 
west and south lines of the State. 2 Texas herds began 
to appear in the Indian country, and even in Kansas. 
Colonel Plumb and his brother were interested in native 
cattle. In the summer of 1866 he was away from home 
much on this business, and in October he visited Ohio. 
In his absence his friend Stotler proposed his name for 
the Legislature. It had been his intention to devote 
all his time to business and eschew politics. He did not 
reply to Stotler's letters on the subject of his candidacy, 
supposing that his indifference would cause his friends 
to make another selection. And this might have been 
done had not the opposing candidate spread a report 
that Plumb was no longer an Emporia citizen — that 
he was no longer identified with the town. When he 
heard this he came home. He arrived the afternoon 
preceding the election. In the few hours remaining be- 
fore the polls opened he worked with his usual energy. 
He sent his brother George to the eastern part of the 
district, and went himself to the western part. Most 
of the voters had served under him in the army, and 
he was elected by a vote of more than two to one. 

Having been elected, Colonel Plumb became a candi- 
date for Speaker of the nouse, and upon the assembling 
of the Legislature, January 8, 1868, he was chosen for 
that position. There was much to be done at the ses- 
sion; in fact, it was one of the most important ever 
hold. The real work of building the institutions of 
the State had never been seriously taken up, most of 



2 Marion County. It was two hundred and seventy-six miles long 
and one hundred and five miles wide. 



BACK TO CIVIL LIFE 211 

the resources and energy of the young Commonweal tb 
having been employed in suppressing the Civil War and 
protecting the border. The soldiers had returned, and 
settlers were pouring in. The finances of the State re- 
quired careful attention, and credit had to be estab- 
lished for the sale of bonds for the erection of public 
buildings. The ratification of the Fourteenth Amend- 
ment to the Constitution of the United States was to be 
considered. Forty-three counties applied to have their 
boundaries changed and defined. Plumb applied him- 
self to the disposition of this formidable array of busi- 
ness. He would tolerate no loitering, no dilatory move- 
ments. He was prompt himself, and he required that 
members be on hand. With such discretion and dis- 
patch was the work conducted that the session was ad- 
journed on the 3d of March. On the 25th of February 
Plumb's resolution endorsing the impeachment of Presi- 
dent Johnson passed the House by forty-seven to twenty- 
eight. Much miscellaneous business also had been 
transacted, including the assumption by the State of the 
claims for services and damages in the Price raid, and 
the submission of three amendments to the State Consti- 
tution. No other Kansas Legislature ever did so much 
in so short a time. 

In connection with his cattle-business Colonel Plumb 
sometimes passed through Butler County on his way to 
the Indian country. By chance he became acquainted 
there with a widow from Ashtabula County, Ohio, who 
was anxious to dispose of her Kansas property and re- 
turn to her former home. He aided in closing up her 
affairs. Through the friendship which resulted Colonel 
Plumb met her niece, Miss Caroline A. Southwick, living 
then with her mother near Ashtabula. Her father, 
Abijah Southwick, born at Salem, Mass., died in 1865. 
His ancestors were English Quakers who settled at 
Salem about the year 1656, where they were persecuted 
because of their faith. They were banished, and a son 



212 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

and daughter ordered sold into slavery in Virginia or the 
Barbadoes to discharge fines imposed upon them. No 
shipmaster cruel enough to carry them away could be 
found, and they escaped this brutal decree. When the 
persecution subsided the family returned to Salem. 3 
Abijah South wick was a strong Anti-Slavery man, and 
his home near Ashtabula was one of the principal sta- 
tions on the Underground Eailroad in Ohio, as many as 
forty fugitive slaves at one time having been concealed, 
cared for, and safely forwarded. 

Colonel Plumb and Miss Southwick were married at 
the home of the bride's mother, Ashtabula County, Ohio, 
March 8, 1SG7. Six children were born to them, of whom 
five survive. They went immediately to Emporia and 
began housekeeping in a one-story three-room " box " 
house at the corner of Merchant and Second Streets. 
One of the rooms was a lean-to kitchen. In this house 
they lived about three months, when they moved out to 
Plumb's claim, or preemption, their home for the next 
three years. 

Colonel Plumb was a candidate for re-election to the 
Legislature in 1867, and was returned practically with- 
out opposition. The Legislature met in January, 18C8. 
He refused to be a candidate for speaker. He favored 
his old time Free-State associate, Judge G. W. Smith, of 
Douglas County, who was elected. The session was un- 
important. 

An Ohio cousin of Plumb, a lawyer, wished to establish 
himself in Kansas. He wrote to Plumb to arrange a 
partnership for him. The law firm of most prominence 
in the country about Emporia then was that of Buggies 
and Brown. At the election in November, 18G7, Brown 



8 The Southwick family is one of the oldest in New England. Its 
founder in America was Lawrence Southwick. It was his son and 
daughter who were ordered sold into slavery. The ballad " Cassandra 
Southwick," by Whittler, is founded on this instance of Puritan in- 
tolerance. 



BACK TO CIVIL LIFE 213 

was elected Judge of the Ninth Judicial District. 
Buggies lived at Americus, a few miles above Emporia, 
and Plumb rode there one evening to urge his cousin as 
partner when Brown should go on the bench. Kobert 
M. Buggies was a fine lawyer. He had been a printer 
and had known Plumb since the founding of Emporia. 
ITe could not be brought to accept the cousin as partner, 
but as Plumb was leaving, said to him, " Why can not 
you become my partner? " They discussed this pro- 
posal far into the night and came to an agreement, the 
new firm to be known as Buggies and Plumb. 4 They 
came at once into a large and lucrative practice. It 
extended to all parts of the State, and even beyond its 
borders, including the business of cattle-growers in 
Texas, the Indian country, Kansas, and New Mexico. 
There were then few railroads, and the courts could be 
reached only by stage and private conveyance. Law- 
books and papers had to be carried around as in the 
days of the old circuits. The firm stood at the head of 
the Kansas bar. Said W. A. Johnston, long Chief Jus- 
tice Kansas Supreme Court : 

Plumb was a good lawyer. The firm of Buggies and Plumb 
was at the head of the bar of the State. They had many cases 
before the United States Courts at Leavenworth. They were 
both good lawyers, and they tried their cases hard — for all that 
\\;is in them; and they were hard to beat in a lawsuit. Their 
husiness was said to be worth more than that of any other law- 
lirm in Kansas. 

Judge Charles B. Graves, of the Kansas Supreme 
Court, had this to say of Plumb: 

I went to Emporia a young lawyer desirous of acquainting 
myself with the members of the bar there and hearing them try 
their cases. I first heard Plumb in a criminal suit, defending 
a man for stealing cattle. The evidence was all against him, 



* The announcement of the new firm appeared in the Emporia Neics, 
November 15, 18G7. 



214 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

and I was curious to know what Plumb could say in behalf of 
his client. Plumb made a fine argument, reasoning close to 
human nature, and showing man)' phases of the case I had not 
thought of. While he did not acquit the man he did hang the 
jury. 

Speaking of Plumb as a lawyer, Archibald L. Wil- 
liams, twice Attorney General and long one of the fore- 
most lawyers of the Western bar, said: 

When Plumb was in a case those opposed to him felt that 
they must cover every point, and when they supposed that they 
had done so they would be surprised at something he would bring 
up which they had never thought of. He talked freely on the 
general points and always reserved his strongest argument to be 
used in an emergency. Lawyers knew Plumb was keen in argu- 
ment, and they always tried to have their cases water-proof, 
but when Plumb got on his feet he invariably found a hole in 
their side of the case. 

The distance Plumb rode to attend to his law busi- 
ness seems incredible in these days of easy traveling. 
Completing a case at Leavenworth one day, he might 
set out at night on horseback for Fort Scott, or for the 
Indian Country, or for Texas. He knew the settlers 
as no other man knew them — as they drove " schoon- 
ers" across the prairies, as they staked out their 
claims on the Upper Arkansas, the Cimarron, the Smoky 
Hill. Emporia was an outfitting point in those days. 
April 23, 1868, the Wichita Town Company met at Em- 
poria to discuss plans for laying out their town, and 
their Secretary was directed to prepare a map of Wich- 
ita. It was so of other towns in the Southwest. Plumb 
saw them founded, saw the counties organized and es- 
tablished, and knew personally every man of conse- 
quence who settled in them. The late Eugene F. Ware, 
long Plumb's intimate personal friend, said : 

Plumb, at a very early date, took out a sort of paternal, pro- 
prietary patent to the Neosho Valley and everything west of it 
in Kansas. Later, he kind of stretched this patent so it covered 



BACK TO CIVIL LIFE 215 

the whole State. It covered business and politics and held good 
as long as he lived. Nobody ever questioned its validity or bind- 
ing force that I ever heard of. 

Touching Plumb's relation to the settlement of Kan- 
sas, Judge Henry C. Sluss, of Wichita, said : 

In 1870 I was in Marion looking for a location. One Sunday 
afternoon Plumb drove into that town. He had some law-books 
and papers in the buggy and had come to try an important law- 
suit which was to be called the next day. He was quite busy 
looking through his books and papers, but I managed to see 
him at meals and odd times. I got from Plumb a good idea 
of all that part of Kansas. He seemed to know everybody and 
to have a marvelous knowledge of all the Southwest. As a result 
of meeting him I settled in Wichita. I did not know how to get 
back to the railroad. When he found that his case would be 
delayed a little he allowed me to drive his team as far as Em- 
poria. I had never seen him before, but he seemed to take great 
pleasure in helping me. And in all the many years I knew him 
afterwards he was the same — always the same. 



CHAPTER XXXIV 

BANKER 

The Einporia National Bank was established June 
4, 1872, and was successor to a private bank, the first 
in the town. 1 Plumb's first visit to Washington City 
was to secure the charter for this bank. His applica- 
tion was refused on the ground that there was not suf- 
ficient population and wealth about Emporia to support 
the bank, the First National Bank having just been 
established. Plumb called on Senator Pomeroy and 
stated his case. " Call on me to-morrow morning, Col- 
onel Plumb, and your charter will be lying right there 
on my desk," said the Senator. And, sure enough, 
when he called there was the charter. 2 He was made 
president of the bank, and gradually withdrew from the 
practice of the law. 

The effects of the panic of 1873 were felt all over the 
country. Plumb began in January to strengthen the 
bank. The capital stock was increased from $50,000 
to $75,000. In September a further increase of $10,- 
000 was made. In a new and growing country the 



i J. It. Swallow & Co. See Andreas's History of Kansas, " Lyon 
County," for dates. It was the Emporia Banking and Savings 
Association before being made tbe Emporia National Bank. Tbe first 
certificates of stock were issued February 1, 1872. riumb's certificate 
was dated June 1, 1872. 

2 Told the author by Colonel John C. Carpenter, Chanute, Kansas. 
When Plumb inquired of Senator Pomeroy bow be bad managed tbe 
matter tbe Senator snid : "Tbe Comptroller of the Currency has not 
yet been confirmed by the Senate. I told him this application was 
right and should be granted and that if tbe charter was not issued at 
once be would never be confirmed. And that brought him to time." 

21G 



BANKER 217 

demand for money always exceeds the supply, and pay- 
ment of obligations must often wait on maturity and 
marketing of crops and live-stock. In 1873 banks 
failed in all parts of the country, and it taxed all the 
resources of Plumb to save his bank. Long afterwards 
he said the hardest work and the most worry of his busi- 
ness life was to save the Emporia National Bank in 
1873. But he carried it through in good condition, the 
most satisfactory feature of the matter being that he had 
not forced any patron into bankruptcy, and had saved a 
number from that disaster. 

There are still extant accounts of many instances il- 
lustrating Colonel Plumb's humanity in connection 
with his banking business. He was also the main re- 
liance of anyone in distress. A pioneer lawyer 3 said 
of him : 

Many of the first settlers of Morris County borrowed money 
from him in early days when times were hard. If his bank could 
not let them have the money, Plumb would loan them his own 
money. There are many well-to-do citizens about Council Grove 
whom Plumb tided over from year to year in early days and 
carried until they could get on their feet. 

Another pioneer 4 remembers the kindness of Plumb. 
He was putting a townsite on the market when a crisis 
in his affairs developed. He had to have three thou- 
sand dollars at once, and banks regarded his enterprise 
with disfavor. After all others had failed him, he 
sought Plumb and stated his case. Plumb let him 
have the money. 

One of the merchants of Emporia went there at an 
early day and opened a store. 6 After some years he 
was able to purchase an interest in the building he 



3 Jobn Maloy, Council Grove, a pioneer who knew Plumb in the 
early settlement of Kansas. 
* W. F. Shamleffer, long Mayor of Council Grove. 
6 George W. Newman. 



218 TITE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

occupied. The owner was over-cautious and drew up a 
very exacting bond requiring compliance with many 
conditions under heavy penalties. The purchase was 
completed in Plumb's bank, where the owner became 
somewhat excited and talked loudly. Plumb came out 
and inquired the cause of the trouble, and when told 
he said they might go on with the sale; that he would 
sign the merchant's bond and that the bank would sign 
it if that was demanded. 

One of Plumb's neighbors had this to say of his kind- 
ness : 6 

I took a homestead but could not live on it all the time. My 
friends wrote me that my homestead would soon be " jumped," 
and that I ought to pre-empt it and save it. I had fifty dollars, 
but needed two hundred to make the payment on the land. I 
went to the bank to get it, and the cashier inquired what security 
I could give. I could give no security. I went back to work 
and watched for Colonel Plumb to come by on his way to dinner, 
and when he passed I followed him around the corner and ex- 
plained my needs. " Come into the bank when I get back," said 
Plumb. I did so, and he told the cashier to let me have the 
money. That money saved my home. 

In 1871 a contractor in Emporia was stricken w r ith 
typhoid fever. 7 He had just completed a bridge over 
the Cottonwood, and was to move his outfit to Atchison 
to work on the Atchison branch of the Santa Fe Rail- 
road. His illness upset his plans. He had little money, 
and he owed some workmen, one of whom attached his 
tools, of which he was informed by his foreman. The 
physician found that something had disturbed his pa- 
tient, and when told what it was, said to the sick man, 
" Do not worry. I will bring a man who will attend to 
this matter." He soon returned with Colonel Plumb, 
who heard the story and said, " Mr. Lewis, do not 
trouble yourself about this. I will go to Cottonwood 



e T. H. Lewis. 

i L. W. Lewis, brother to T. H. Lewis. 



BANKER 219 

Falls and attend to it. You do just as the doctor tells 
you and leave this business to me." Plumb could not 
prevent the sale, but he paid all the bills, judgments, and 
costs, and turned over the tools to the foreman. Wheu 
the contractor was well enough to do so he went to see 
Plumb, who exhibited the bills he had paid, and said 
that was all that was owing. He would not accept a 
cent for his services. 

This same contractor went to Colorado, but affairs 
went ill with him there, and he returned to Emporia 
and went to work in a lumber yard for $1.50 a day. He 
bid on the construction of a county bridge and secured 
the contract, but could not give the required bond. He 
thought of Plumb, who signed his bond. But he had 
no tools to work with. " How much do you need for 
tools? " asked Plumb. " About $250," replied the con- 
tractor. Plumb drew up a note and the contractor 

' signed it. Plumb endorsed it and handed him $250. 

But Plumb refused to aid this contractor once. He 
was a candidate for Clerk of the District Court. Plumb 
was then in the Senate. The candidate canvassed the 
county and was certain he could get the office if Sena- 
tor Plumb would help him, and of this aid he had little 
doubt. Plumb got home two days before the conven- 
tion and Lewis hurried in to see him. '' You are beaten. 
You will not get the office. I will not help you," said 
Plumb. The candidate was greatly surprised and cha- 
grined and went home with drooping spirits. In the 

| convention he was beaten, but went to see Plumb, who 
took him aside and said : " What did you want with 
that office? It pays about a thousand dollars a year 
and lasts two years. When you were once in, one man 
would come and borrow your derrick, another would 
borrow your wheel-barrows, and another your shovels 
and crowbars. When your two years were up you 
would not have a single tool. When I drive out I see 
a fine stone house and am told you built it. I see a 



220 THE LIFE OP PRESTON B. PLUMB 

good stone bridge and am told the same. Now you go 
on with your business, and if you need any money call 
on me." The next year he had plenty of work. At the 
end of the season he had his bank book balanced and 
met Plumb as he was leaving the bank. " Let me see 
that book," said Plumb. The contractor handed him 
the book. It showed a balance of $11,000. " How much 
do you owe?" asked Plumb. "Two thousand dollars 
will pay every cent I owe," said the contractor. " That 
office will be vacant next year, and I am for you," said 
Plumb. " Thank you, Senator, I do not want any office." 



CHAPTER XXXV 

TEXAS CATTLE — MINING 

Senator Plumb was engaged in the Texas-cattle 
business after he had taken the presidency of the Em- 
poria National Bank, though he never had more than 
an indirect connection with it. 

About 1S71 Major Calvin Hood and others from 
Sturgis, Michigan, settled in Emporia. In the fall of 
the following year the first Texas cattle to appear in 
Lyon County were driven into the country south of the 
Cottonwood. There was no market for those cattle in 
that country at the time, and the owners had difficulty 
in disposing of them. Hood assisted in the final dis- 
position of them, and in so doing learned something of 
the manner of handling Texas cattle; and he believed 
there was money to be made in dealing in them. In the 
spring of 1872 he induced Plumb to furnish the means 
necessary to engage in this trade. A partnership was 
formed. In addition to Plumb and Hood it included a 
Mr. Hughes, Texan, a man familiar with all phases of 
the cattle business in the Southwest. The bank could 
not supply so large a sum to any one company as this 
enterprise required. And Plumb did not wish to loan 
the money of the bank to an association of which he was 
himself a partner ; so, he secured the money on his own 
credit from friends in Ohio. 

At that time the Texas cattle raisers were organized 

into associations which, every spring, fixed the prices 

at which their cattle of various ages should be sold. A 

drover was at liberty to gather such cattle as he de- 

221 



222 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

sired. A county inspector examined the herd so as- 
sembled and noted in his returns to the countv au- 
thorities the number of cattle of each and every brand 
found in the herd, as well as the age of the animal bear- 
ing the brand. He then designated what was known as 
a " road brand." The herd was marked with the road 
brand, when it was ready to be driven North. Before 
moving the cattle the drover had to come to some agree- 
ment with the various owners from the ranges of whom 
he had drawn his cattle — paying so much in hand and 
having so much due and payable at the end of the sea- 
son, or conclusion of the drive. Sometimes the county 
inspector was authorized to make this agreement, es- 
pecially in the early days of cattle-driving. The more 
the drover could have stand over, the less ready cash he 
required, and first payments were always as small as 
could be secured. It would often happen that a whole 
herd was secured from a single ranchman, but that was 
not the rule. 

Hood would notify Plumb, when his herds were 
gathered and his terms with the stockmen fixed, about 
how much money was needed to make present payments 
and meet the expense of driving the cattle North. 
Plumb would furnish the money, which was the extent 
of his connection with the company, except, of course, 
that he had his share of the profits, or bore his part of 
the loss, as the case might be. The partnership was 
continued about seven years. It was of varying suc- 
cess, but on the whole it made money. 

The excitement produced by the discovery at Lead- 
ville, Colorado, of ore bearing silver carbonate was in- 
tense and widespread. Men from all parts of the coun- 
try went there hoping to secure a mine or an interest 
in one. Great fortunes were quickly made by Senator 
Tabor and others. 

In 1879 Plumb went to Leadville, where he soon be- 



TEXAS CATTLE — MINING 223 

came interested iu a number of properties. Among 
others associated with him in their ownership were 
James G. Blaine and Stephen B. Elkins. One of these 
prospects — Small Hopes — developed into a good mine. 
It paid dividends amounting to $100,000 a month for 
thirty-three consecutive months; and, in all, paid 
$5,000,000. It began to decrease in 1883, and declined 
in production rapidly. Of all the prospects secured by 
Plumb, the Orion, the Boreel, and four or five others 
became producers after his death. A number of them 
never did pay anything. The mining enterprises en- 
gaged in by Senator Plumb considered altogether, paid, 
but a good many of his mining investments never 
yielded returns worth while. 



CHAPTER XXXVI 

ELECTION TO THE SENATE 

Colonel Plumb retained bis interest in political af- 
fairs. It is doubtful, however, if be bad any intention 
of again accepting public office. He was a prominent 
member of tbe Republcan party in Kansas, but was in- 
dependent in bis views and actions. Tbe best instance 
of tbis was in bis support of Greeley for tbe Presidency 
in 1872. x Greeley bad been tbe friend of Kansas in tbe 
Anti-Slavery struggle — ber most powerful friend. 
The Neto York Tribune was tbe political cbart of tbe 
Free-State men. Plumb was outspoken in bis support 
of Greeley, wbo lost tbe state by a vote of about two to 
one. 2 



i There was effected in Kansas an organization of the Liberal 
Republican party in that year. Its State Convention was held at 
Topeka, September 11. Charles Robinson, ex -Governor, was its presi- 
dent. Many prominent men in Kansas were delegates, among them, 
S. J. Crawford, J. B. Hallowell, Pardee Butler, Joel Moody, Samuel 
A. EiggS, E. G. Ross, S. N. Wood and General William Larimer. 
Eugene F. Ware edited the Fort Scott Monitor in the interest of the 
Greeley movement. 

2 William Higgins, long a power in Kansas polities, Secretary of 
State, and afterwards of Oklahoma, in a letter to the author, May 30, 
1910, said: 

I can say I know more about Plumb declaring for Greeley than 
any other man. In our early comradeship as printers be and I were 
great lovers of Greeley. Wo both believed in him and what he wrote 
or said in the Tribune was our law. I received a letter from Plumb 
announcing that he was going to support Greeley; and he wanted to 
know what I would do. In that letter be said: "I love Greeley. I 
believe he will make a great Executive, and I don't care about their 
branding me as a deserter from the Republican party — I am not." 



ELECTION TO THE SENATE 225 

Notwithstanding Plumb's desire to remain in private 
life, it was inevitable that he should be called into the 
public service. His part in the Free-State struggle, his 
founding of pioneer settlements on the Smoky Hill and 
the upper Neosho, his early newspaper work, his service 
in the army, and his financial success after the war 
made him one of the commanding figures in Kansas. 
And when the Southwest had grown so that it had to be 
reckoned with politically it offered Plumb as its rep- 
resentative and best man, and demanded his election 
to the United States Senate. But the mention of his 
name even for that high office had not waited on the 
development of the State. When for political purposes, 
an outcry had been made against him and General Ew- 
ing after the Quantrill raid, two men sealed a compact 
to work for Plumb for Senator until he should be 
elected. 3 So persistent was the use of his name for that 
place that he could not but take some notice of it, and 
it became fixed in his mind that if he should stand for 
another office it would be that of United States Senator. 
In the summer of 1873 William P. Hackney, of Winfield, 
urged Plumb for the position in an interview which 
was widely published. He received a letter from Plumb 



riumb's big heart and sense of loyalty to the man he loved and 
believed in were his reason for supporting Greeley in 1872, and 
nothing more. 

s See Wichita Eagle, November 1801. Statement in editorial of 
the proprietor, M. M. Murdock, who barely escaped with his life at 
the Lawrence Massacre, and who was perfectly familiar with all the 
facts concerning the event: 

In September, 1863, no little criticism was being indulged in, by 
those who did not understand tbe situation, of Plumb's supposed want 
of action in failing to head off Quantrill and his murderers. Plumb 
at the time being Major in command of a battalion of the Eleventh 
Kansas. Hon. Jacob Stotler and the now editor of the Eagle being 
both indignant at the unmerited abuse of their friend, entered then 
into a compact, sealed by vows and handshakes, that as soon as tbe 
war was over they would commence to advocate Plumb for the United 
States Senate and never cease talking in their respective papers to 
that end until success or failure had marked the effort. 



226 TIIE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

thanking him, but saying that his time for election to 
the Senate had not come. 

The Senatorial election in January, 1874, was to fill 
a vacancy. Following an investigation of the means 
used to secure his election, Alexander Caldwell resigned. 
To the vacancy Governor Osborn appointed Robert 
Crozier, who could serve only until action by the Legis- 
lature. The friends of Colonel Plumb insisted that he 
stand for the election, and he went to Topeka to direct 
his campaign. He did not expect to win, for he had 
not been a candidate, had not canvassed the State, and 
had not organized a political following. He made a 
very creditable showing, having on 'the first ballot, 
seventeen votes ; on the second, twenty-one votes ; on the 
third, seventeen votes; on the fourth, twenty-five votes; 
and on the fifth and last ballot he had twenty-one votes. 
James M. Harvey, who had been Governor of the State 
from 1868 to 1872, was elected. Colonel Plumb's 
friends immediately held a meeting and organized for 
the coming campaign. 






* Few " issues " entered into the campaign. Plumb opposed open- 
ing the Indian Territory to settlement on the ground that Kansas was 
a new State and much in need of settlers ; and that many people 
from Kansas would go to the new country. The other candidates 
favored the opening of this Indian country. The Greenback party 
was then quite strong in Kansas and had the sympathy of many 
Republicans, among them Plumb. He was committed to some of their 
principles, and the only declaration made by him during the contest 
before the Legislature was in response to a communication from 
citizens of Wabaunsee County, and is as follows : 

Topeka, January 22, 1877. 
Hon. Welcome Wells, and others: 

Gentlemen : I am in receipt of yours of this date. I was opposed 
to the passage of the resumption act and am in favor of its repeal. 
I believe the national bank act should be repealed, the currency 
authorized by it retired and legal tender notes issued by the govern- 
ment substituted therefor, coupled with a practical prohibition of the 
issue of state bank or other so-called wild-cat money. 

I am in favor of building up the productive industries of the West 
as an act of justice, and as essential to the restoration of prosperity 
to the entire country. 

If called to act upon these qucstiong In an official capacity my 



ELECTION TO THE SENATE 227 

The Legislature which chose the Senator was elected 
in the fall of 1876. Colonel Plumb addressed the peo- 
ple at various places. However, the foundation of his 
election was the convention which met at Wichita on 
the 18th of August to nominate a candidate for Con- 
gress from the Third District. There were but three 
districts. The third included approximately all that 
part of the State south of the Smoky Ilill and west of 
the east line of Shawnee County — almost the south 
half of the State and now embracing more than fifty 
counties. Colonel Plumb was urged to be a candidate 
for Congress, but he had no desire to serve in the House. 
He favored Judge Thomas Ryan, of Topeka, who with 
Plumb's aid, was easily nominated. This assured 
Plumb the support of Judge Ryan. 

In the convention a delegate opposed to Judge Ryan 
criticised Plumb for having advocated the election of 
Greeley. An old Free-State man, also a delegate, de- 
fended both Greeley and Plumb, saying that any Repub- 
lican might have been for Greeley ; that many of the best 
Republicans in Kansas had favored him and remained 
in the party ; that Greeley was entitled to the gratitude 
of every Kansan, and that his support could never be 
made a test of Republicanism in Kansas. This speech 
destroyed much of the party feeling in the State against 
those who had supported Greeley. 

On the evening of adjournment Colonel Plumb de- 
livered an address. The house was packed. He was 
beginning to see his destiny and was animated by a 
sense of power. The writer has talked with many who 
were present, and, one and all, they declare the speech 
one of the best they ever heard. The audience was 
deeply impressed with the personality of Plumb. The 



votes shall be east in furtherance of the views above expressed, to 
which I have been long committed. 

Very truly yours, 

P. B. Plumb. 



228 THE LIFE OF PPiESTON B. PLUMB 

new master of politics had spoken, and the delegates 
dispersed to their homes persuaded that Kansas would 
not fail him at the Senatorial election. 

The Legislature met on the 9th of January, 1877. The 
leading candidates against Colonel Plumb were : 

James M. Harvey, standing for re-election. 

Thomas A. Osborn, who had been Governor from 1872 
to 187G. 

T. C. Sears, General-Attorney for the Missouri, Kan- 
sas and Texas Railroad; he lived at Ottawa; the rail- 
road influence of the State was for him. 

Walter L. Simons; he had lived at Fort Scott, but 
was then living at Osage Mission (now St. Paul), in 
Neosho County. 

David P. Lowe; he lived at Fort Scott; had been 
elected to Congress in 1870 and 1872; in 1872 he had 
been appointed United States Judge for Utah, but had 
resigned and returned to Kansas. 

To that time there had never been a caucus in Kan- 
sas to select the party candidate for Senator. The cus- 
tom was for each member of the Legislature to vote for 
his choice on each ballot. 

In this Legislature there were one hundred and sixty- 
five members, almost all Republicans, and it required 
eighty-one votes to elect a Senator. The first ballot 
was taken on the 23d of January, 1877. Plumb had 
twenty-four votes. This was his lowest number. On 
the second ballot he had twenty-five votes; on the third, 
thirty votes. On the thirteenth ballot which was taken 
on the 30th of January, he had forty-nine votes. Har- 
vey then withdrew from the contest. On the fourteenth 
ballot Plumb had fifty-three votes; on the fifteenth, he 
had fifty-seven. These gains frightened the other can- 
didates, and they combined to effect an adjournment of 
the joint session before another ballot could be taken. 

When the joint session was adjourned all knew the 
crisis was at hand. It was seen that unless every ele- 



ELECTION TO THE SENATE 229 

mcnt of opposition could be consolidated against him 
Plumb was certain to be elected. That this league 
against Plumb might be accomplished, a caucus was 
agreed to. The exact number of the Legislature in at- 
tendance is not known, but an examination of the news- 
papers of that day warrants the conclusion that enough 
to have defeated Plumb were present — perhaps one 
hundred. An effort was even made to have Plumb's 
supporters attend the caucus, and to secure his sanc- 
tion of it ; but he knew he had nothing to gain and might 
have much to lose by such a course. 

When it was seen that a majority of the Legislature 
was present at the caucus there was high hope of de- 
feating Colonel Plumb. Strict secrecy was imposed. 
No speeches were permitted, and balloting was im- 
mediately commenced under a rule that the nominee 
must have the entire vote of the caucus. From half- 
past seven until two in the morning the voting con- 
tinued without result. When any candidate showed 
material gains the friends of the others attacked him 
tooth and nail, voting for outsiders in his territory. 
Bad feeling was engendered, and it became apparent 
that no union could be secured in the caucus. One by 
one members left it until less than a majority remained. 
These finally united on Judge Lowe, the weakest of 
Plumb's opponents. Those who abandoned the caucus 
usually found their way at once to Plumb's headquar- 
ters. His following was greatly encouraged, for it was 
plain that his star was in the ascendant. 

When the result of the caucus was known it was con- 
ceded that it had failed in its purpose and that Colonel 
Plumb could not be defeated. With the new day came 
a new sentiment. In the Leavenworth Standard is 
found the following: 

The name of the gallant defender of his State and country, 
the young orator of the West, was in every mouth. The conta- 
gion affected not the legislators alone, but the State dignitaries, 



230 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

the business men of the capital, and all classes of society. 
Scarcely more than the formal registration of the overpowering 
voice of the people was the ballot at high noon of that day ; and 
long ere the result could be announced by the Speaker, the deaf- 
ening cheers that went up, alike from the floor of the House and 
the crowded galleries, told that the exciting and long protracted 
Senatorial contest was at an end. 

The election was on the 31st of January, 1877, and as 
soon as the result was declared a committee was sent to 
conduct Colonel Plumb before the Legislature. He 
entered with a face as pale as death. His welcome was 
cordial, cheer on cheer rising from the thronged floor 
and galleries. He did not dare trust himself for any 
extended address, for he was sympathetic and emotional 
and might be overcome, but he returned his thanks in 
a few appropriate words. 5 

Topeka friends secured a special train to Emporia on 
the day following the election. On his home-coming- 
many men of prominence in Kansas, regardless of party, 
were the guests of the Senator-elect. The train reached 
Emporia at noon Thursday, February 1, and Colonel 
PlumD was greeted by a great throng. An address of 
welcome was delivered, and to this the Senator happily 
responded. 6 



5 It was said that in his confusion he inadvertently hegan his ad- 
dress with " Gentlemen of the Jury." This caused laughter and a 
diversion which relieved the tension of all, after which Colonel Plumb 
recovered his self-control. 

8 The following account of the home-coming was published in the 
Emporia Ledger, February 2d : 

Hon. William Jay was appointed master of ceremonies, and escorted 
Colonel Plumb when he stepped from the car to the sidewalk in front 
of the Windsor House. The Colonti worked his way to this point 
quite cheerfully, but tediously, there being so many hands extended at 
every step to be shaken. When, at length, he had reached the side- 
walk and Mr. Jay had introduced him as our next United States 
Senator, Dr. J. J. Wright delivered a welcome address, in substance 
as follows: 

Col. Plumb: — The pleasing duty is assigned me of putting in 
words, as best I may, the heartfelt rejoicing and sincere congratula- 
tions of these, your immediate friends and fellow-citizens, in your 



ELECTION TO TIIE SENATE 231 

The election of Plumb was well received by the people. 
The press was pleased and complimentary. Many 
papers published sketches and reviews of his life and 
public services. That of the Atchison Champion' 1 is 
a fair expression of the State press: 

No citizen of Kansas, will, we think, ever have just cause to 
regret Colonel Plumb's election. He is a man of ability, and 
what is equally, if not more important, he is a man of high 
character and unquestionable integrity. 

Tried in many positions he has always proven equal to any 
duties. He was a vigorous, earnest and fearless writer when he 
rilled the editorial chair; he proved himself an able and suc- 
cessful lawyer when he practised at the bar ; he was a brave, gal- 
lant and loyal soldier during the war, winning numerous 



selection to the United States Senate. This is an impromptu gather- 
ing of your neighbors, who are here irrespective of party affiliations. 
The citizens of Emporia feel a just local pride in this result. Know- 
ing you, we have faith in you, and we are confident that after you 
have entered upon the duties of your office, the people of the entire 
State will learn, if they do not know already, that in you they have 
an honest, capable and faithful representative. In conclusion, permit 
me to renew the congratulations which our hearts feel more than my 
words express. 

Colonel Plumb, although moved by emotions that almost choked his 
utterance, responded as follows : 

Among all the congratulations I have received since my election to 
the United States Senate, none have so deeply impressed me as these 
I have been favored with here to-day. Your kind, friendly feelings 
touch me to the heart. I have lived with you nearly twenty-one 
years. When I look back to the time when I first saw the naked 
prairie on which our beautiful city now stands, it seems like a dream. 
Our city is celebrated for its enterprise and public spirit, and Emporia 
is really a synonym for the people of the whole State. It has been 
said that Kansas is indebted to me in a measure for its present 
prosperity. I am more indebted to Kansas than it is to me. I was 
attracted hither by the heroic struggles of the early pioneers in the 
vindication of republican principles, and I have always been gener- 
ously and kindly treated by the people of Kansas. I thank you 
heartily for this impromptu gathering. In the discharge of my 
official duties I shall endeavor to satisfy the people of the whole State. 
I shall be partial to no section. I will do the best to represent the 
whole State. I ask your support and prayers. Again I return you 
my heartfelt thanks. 

i Owned and edited by Colonel John A. Martin, of the Eighth 
Kansas, and afterwards Governor of Kansas four years. 



232 THE LIFE OP PEESTON B. PLUMB 

and deserved promotions; he served several times in the Legis- 
lature, where he was distinguished as a wise, practical and in- 
dustrious law-maker; and as a business man he not only enjoys 
the confidence of commercial circles in a very large degree, but 
has established a widespread reputation for enterprise, energy 
and sagacity. Young, resolute, alert and capable, he will, we 
think, prove himself a worthy, influential representative of the 
young Commonwealth with whose romantic history and substan- 
tial development his life has been, for twenty-one years, so in- 
separably associated. 

By a petition of two hundred and thirty-six of her 
principal citizens and business men, Lawrence invited 
Senator Plumb to be her guest at a social entertainment 
to be given in his honor. s He designated the 8th of 
February as the day for the occasion. His reception 
was very cordial and the day closed with a banquet. 9 



s This petition is in the library of Mrs. P. B. Plumb. It was signed 
by ex-Governor Robinson. 

s An account of the day and its entertainment is in the Lawrence 
Republican-Journal, February 9, 1877. 



CHAPTER XXXVII 

ASSUMING DUTIES OF SENATOR 

By proclamation of President Grant the Senate was 
convened in special session on the 5th of March, 1877. 
On that day Senator Plumb was sworn and entered on 
his Senatorial career. Among those sworn with him 
were Blaine, Windoin, Teller, and Benjamin H. Hill. 
On the roll of the Senate were the names of Roscoe 
Conlding, Thomas F. Bayard, John Sherman, Allen G. 
Thurman, Joseph E. McDonald, Oliver P. Morton, W. 
B. Allison, and many others who had already attained 
fame in the national councils. The Senate has rarely 
had at any one time more eminent men than in the 
Forty-fifth Congress. 

On the 9th of March committee assignments were an- 
nounced. Plumb was sixth on Committee on Military 
Affairs, fifth on Public Lands, and fourth on that on 
Mines and Mining. He regarded his place on the 
Committee on Public Lands as the most desirable of 
his assignments. 1 

President Hayes convened Congress in special ses- 

i It is said that ex-Senator Pomeroy suggested to Plumb that the 
Committee on Public Lands afforded the greatest opportunity for him 
to be of service to the people of Kansas. Kansas had then much 
public land. Pomeroy had been on that committee. A. A. Thomas 
had been the Register of the Land Office at Cawker City, Kansas, 
but was a lawyer in Washington City when Plumb was elected to the 
Senate. He says that Plumb studied the public lands thoroughly, 
being often at the office of the Department of the Interior for that 
purpose. " He met officials there at night to dig and delve into the 
methods employed in the handling of the public domain. And soon 
he was one of the best authorities in the United States on public 
land questions," said Mr. Thomas. 

233 



234 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

si<m on the 15th of October, 1877. Plumb's seat was 
No. 76, the last but oue, outside the regular rows, a 
poor one, near the door of the east cloak-room. He ig- 
nored that Senatorial tradition which imposes on a new 
member a long probationary silence. In January, 1878, 
lie became active in the debates, and on the 31st of that 
i lit tilth the consideration of a bill reserving to a com- 
petent person successfully contesting or purchasing a 
homestead claim, the exclusive right to file on such claim 
at any time within thirty days. He had previously sub- 
mitted a report from the Committee on Public Lands 
favorable to the bill, which was debated and passed 
without amendment. February 6th he joined in the 
debate on the bill to further exempt the deposits of sav- 
ing banks from taxation, and opposed the bill, calling 
attention to the fact that in New England, New York, 
and New Jersey such deposits to the amount of $773,- 
309,300 were exempt from taxation. Of this amount 
sl , lT),G3S,000 was in Massachusetts. In Alabama, 
Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, 
Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, Michigan, Nebraska, 
Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Ten- 
nessee, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin every 
single dollar of deposits was taxed. It was no wonder, 
he said, that money was cheap in New England. He 
made the principal argument and declared that such a 
law was an injustice to the West and South. 

On the 25th of February Plumb introduced a reso- 
lution directing the Secretary of the Interior to inquire 
of the Government directors of the Union Pacific Rail- 
road Company what security had been taken, whether 
stocks, bonds, or other forms of indebtedness, for aid 
extended to branch lines. The question raised by that 
inquiry became an important issue twenty years later. 

That Plumb did not hesitate even at that time to 
stand alone against the Senate when he believed him- 
self in the right was well exemplified in the case of Dr. 



ASSUMING DUTIES OF SENATOR 235 

William A. Hammond, former Surgeon-General of the 
Army. Dr. Hammond had, by court-martial, been 
found guilty of corruption in office in the fraudulent 
purchase of supplies. August 18, 1864, President Lin- 
coln approved the sentence of the court that Dr. Ham- 
mond be dismissed from the service and be forever dis- 
qualified from holding any office of trust or profit. A 
bill for relief from this sentence came from the House 
and was considered by the Senate March 12, 1878. Dr. 
Hammond had become eminent in his profession, being 
then in receipt therefrom of an annual income of $00,- 
000. Senator Plumb did not hope to prevent the pass- 
age of the bill, but said: 

I was in hopes that some one of the Senators in favor of this 
bill would vouchsafe to the Senate an explanation of the reasons 
why it should pass. For myself, while I have no hope that the 
bill will fail to pass, I feel that I have a duty to perform which 
will not permit me to remain silent. ... It is, I think, an un- 
warrantable interference by Congress with the affairs of the 
Army and with the action of courts which it has established for 
the purpose of administering justice in the Army. ... It is in 
effect saving to persons aggrieved by the action of courts-martial 
that Congress can be induced by the operation of social and po- 
litical influences to set aside that action. This inevitably weakens 
authority and destroys discipline. I say no one certainly can 
impugn the justice, the good faith, or the kind-heartedness of 
Abraham Lincoln. He knew every single step of that trial which 
was taken. He was as well advised as any man could possibly 
have been of any ulterior purpose which might have been had 
in view by the Secretary of War, . . . After a patient and care- 
ful examination of the proceedings, he certified to them, and 
directed that the sentence of the court-martial be carried into 
effect. 

What do we find as a basis for this proposed action? This 
report is based upon the fact that this man is eminent. Con- 
gress therefore puts its action upon the ground that lie is em- 
inent. . . . We are proposing here a way to reinstate this man 
alone in his former position in the Army because he is eminent 
in his profession. 

The consideration of the bill ended, as shown by the 



23G THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

Record, as follows : " The yeas and nays were ordered ; 
and being taken, resulted — Yeas 55, nay 1, as follows." 
Then is given the roll-call showing that the one negative 
vote was cast by Plumb. 2 



2 The Washington Post published a stanza designed to make Plumb 
the object of ridicule : 

A PLUMB LINE 

" Belisarius " Plumb was uncommonly gaminond 
When he raised his wild whoop against Dr. Hammond, 
But his spirit was great, and Kansas' brave Son 
Should henceforth be rated a Plumb No. One ! 
And yet — such is life — there are those who think Plumb 
Would have figured still better had be been born dumb ! 

Colonel John C. Carpenter, of Chanute, was in Washington at the 
time, and in conversation with a Senator was asked why Kansas sent 
a man to the Senate who could take such a stand. He replied that 
Kansas knew exactly what she was about, and that soon the Senate 
would know why she had elected Plumb to that body. 

Judge Thomas Ryan said : 

Plumb was a man who was not very much disposed to lie down 
and go to sleep in the Senate until he got a little old. I always 
thought the following was done to discipline him, though I don't know. 
He was very active in a certain measure and made one or two 
speeches on it in his vigorous, forceful style, and although he did not 
have any help at all, he fought it to a finish. My recollection is that 
he insisted on an ape and no vote, and I guess Plumb voted alone, 
but he was right, absolutely right. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII 

FORTY-SIXTH CONGRESS 
SPECIAL SESSION. 

TnE failure of the appropriation bills in the last ses- 
sion of the Forty-fifth Congress made a special session 
of the Forty-sixth Congress necessary. It was called 
by President Hayes for the 18th of March, 1879. The 
Democrats had a majority in both branches, and it was 
their policy to curtail the power of the Government. 
With that object in view " riders " were attached to the 
appropriation bills. Under existing laws the army 
could be used to keep peace at the polls at elections for 
members of Congress. A "rider" to the Army Bill 
prohibited this practice. The votes cast at elections 
held for members of Congress might be counted by 
Federal Supervisors, and a " rider " to the Legislative 
Bill repealed this provision, as well as that authorizing 
Federal Marshals to make arrests at the polls. The 
Judiciary Bill carried a " rider " prohibiting the pay- 
ment of Federal Marshals for " services in connection 
with elections." 

The Republicans opposed these measures on the ground 
that they constituted an attempt to coerce the Execu- 
tive branch of the Government, The bills were vetoed 
by the President, and the appropriation bills were finally 
passed without " riders," a victory for the Republican 
party. 

Army matters always received careful attention from 
Senator Plumb. In discussing the Army Bill at this 
session he expressed his ideas of what an army should 

237 



238 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

be. He said it was an organization created for the pur- 
pose of fighting, and, that incident to that purpose, was 
the creation of a staff department to aid in the develop- 
ment of the fighting functions. The essential part of 
the army is that which does field duty — the only part 
of an army which ever had to be drafted. " Nobody," 
said he, " ever heard of an engineer, or a quartermaster, 
or a commissary, or a pay-master, or a surgeon having 
to be drafted." The man who serves in the ranks, as 
he thought, should have the best care, the best pay, 
and an opportunity for promotion. To the common sol- 
dier was due the grateful consideration of the United 
States for his services during the war and afterwards. 
Plumb rarely praised the officers of the army as consti- 
tuted in his day. 

At this session Plumb made an effort to have the law 
for the prevention of epidemic diseases apply to cattle. 
He insisted that the National Board of Health be given 
jurisdiction in epidemic and contagious diseases of cat- 
tle. There were no restrictions prohibiting the intro- 
duction of pleuro-pneumonia by bringing in cattle 
having that malady. The cattle of the United States, 
he said, formed an important part of the food-supply 
of the country, as well as a considerable portion of its 
wealth. Both the value of the cattle and the neces- 
sity for wholesome food required that every precaution 
be taken to prevent and eradicate cattle diseases. 

SECOND SESSION. 

Tli is session began December 1, 1S70. The Sennit' 
Committees were selected on the second day, Plumb be- 
ing given places on three standing committees, — Mili- 
tary Affairs, .Mines and Mining, and Public Lands. He 
was also on a select committee to investigate the re- 
moval of the Northern Cheycnnes. At this time he se- 
cured scat No. 55, his choice of Senate seats, which he 
retained until his death. The seat was variously mini- 



FORTY-SIXTH CONGRESS !':;<) 

bored at different sessions; it is on the main aisle, on 
the right-hand side entering the Senate Chamber, third 
or back row. Senator Allison sat on his right. 

The political aspects of this session were similar to 
those of the extra session. The Democrats failed in 
their efforts to have the vetoed " riders " enacted into 
law. The decision of the Supreme Court sustaining the 
General Election Law weakened the opposition of the 
Democratic party to that measure, and this weakness 
was reflected in Congress. Some effort was made to 
amend the laws applying to the count of the electoral 
vote, but nothing was accomplished, and the country 
entered on another election with the same laws but not 
the same conditions of 1876. 

While there was a dearth of effective politics in this 
session much business was transacted, and the country 
made substantial progress. Senator Flumb was active 
in the debates of all important matters, and made ma- 
terial advance to an influential position in the Senate. 
He was rapidly mastering the application of legisla- 
tive action to the principles of government. He had 
a faculty for details, and the Senate was often aston- 
ished at his familiarity with the intricate mazes run- 
ning through the administration of the Departments. 
He kept ever abreast of the changing conditions there. 
Plumb's service in the Senate, taken as a whole, resem- 
bles nothing else so much as the course in a college. It 
was a progression. The country was fast drawing away 
from the conditions produced by the Civil War and re- 
construction. New countries were being entered by 
railroads, and settlers were taking up the waste-places. 
Industrial development was rapid. States were in 
process of formation, and daily progress brought daily 
change. To keep up with these changes, to understand 
them and their immediate and ultimate consequences, 
to be equipped and ready to deal promptly and intelli- 
gently with any result of this development was the task 



240 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

Plumb set for himself. At this session of Congress he 
began to feel himself well settled in his work. The self- 
imposed and self-constructed harness was adjusted in 
all its parts, and he began to bear easily that ever in- 
creasing burden which grew to such enormous pro- 
portions that at last it crushed him. 

In matter of paying the States five per cent, of the 
proceeds of the public-lands sales in their bounds for use 
in public improvements Plumb favored the States. The 
obligation of the Government so to do was contained 
in the acts admitting States in which public lands were 
situated. These acts were contracts, as he said, which 
the States could not enforce; they were compelled to 
look to Congress. His argument on this subject was 
one of the best of the session. Many technical and in- 
volved features of the question were reduced to plain 
and simple principles. 

The growth of the West demanded a constant en- 
largement of the territory covered by mail routes, as 
well as increased facilities in communities where serv- 
ice had already been established. To secure efficiency 
in this service was one of the growing burdens which 
Plumb bore all the time he was in the Senate. In this 
as in other matters complete knowledge of existing con- 
ditions enabled him to make suggestions which pro- 
duced satisfactory results. In speaking on this subject 
in March, 1880, he said : 

I am not speaking for Kansas alone; I am speaking for the 
entire frontier. If yon stick at giving increased service to the 
people who have gone there on the supposition that they would 
be met by mail facilities, facilities to be increased from time to 
time as circumstances should warrant, then, as I say, we have 
made a discrimination against the very class of people who most 
ought to meet with favor here. 

ITe was always careful to see that the Indians were 
accorded their legal rights under treaties. He, however, 



FORTY-SIXTH CONGRESS 241 

entertained all the prejudices of the pioneers against 
them as a people. He regarded them as incapable of 
any high degree of development and unsuited for higher 
occupations. On one occasion he said: 

You could turn all the Indians that could be educated at the 
Carlisle Barracks for the next fifty years into Pennsylvania and 
the Indians would starve to death in competition with the people 
of Pennsylvania. The only thing an Indian is fit for, when it 
comes to an industrial occupation, is the lower branches of agri- 
culture; something that is in its nature passive, something which 
requires no perceptible intelligence. He is no more capable of 
improvement in the sense in which we ordinarily use the term 
than a wild beast. . . . When it comes to talk about educating 
them and in making them a factor of civilization, that is one of 
the things which cannot possibly result from anything we 
can do. 

This was the opinion of nearly all who came in con- 
tact with the Indians in the conquest of America. The 
attitude of Senator Plumb was that of nearly every man 
on the frontier from Jamestown to Astoria. Perhaps 
under our system of dealing with the Indians this view is 
correct. But where a different method has been adopted 
the Indians have responded to efforts made in their be- 
half. Senator Plumb saw the error of our course and 
in the following session held it up to public scorn and 
insisted that the Indians be educated along lines that 
were suited to their capacity : 

I say it is rank injustice to the Indians ; I say it is the essence 
of inhumanity to the Indians ; and I say it as one who believes 
that the Government has obligations of humanity to the Indians 
which ought to be properly discharged. The trouble about all 
this treatment of the Indians is a trouble which has recently 
broken out. It grows out of the belief recently generated that 
an Indian can be taken from his wild state and educated as a 
white man can be educated. . . . 

Mr. President, the extinction of the Indian race will be a 
fitting comment on this policy. I remember a good many years 
ago reading an account of a man who had invented and put in 



242 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

use delicate machinery for the purpose of lifting the eyelids of 
bats that they might be enabled to see by daylight. Every bat 
whose eyelids were lifted dropped dead, but the inventor said he 
should continue until at least one bat, if the last of his race, 
should have the benefit of sight in the daylight. ... To impose 
upon the Indians the theories of civilization that are applicable 
to white men ... is a violation of the nature, of the laws, 
of progress, and the result is inevitable. 

So far as our methods of education are concerned 
Plumb was right. They are not suited to the condi- 
tions and needs of the Indians. 

The National Republican Convention met at Chicago, 
June 2, 1880. Senator Plumb was a delegate. 

THIRD SESSION. 

In short sessions of Congress there is never much 
time for general legislation. The appropriation bills 
require the full attention of Congress. Garfield had 
been elected President by a decisive majority, and no 
immediate advantage could accrue to the opposition 
from pressing political questions. 

The claim of Ben LTolladay for damages alleged to 
have been sustained by him during the Civil War in 
the transportation of the mails from the Missouri 
River to Salt Lake City over the " Overland Mail 
Route," was brought before Congress at this session. 
It was for nearly half a million dollars, and was not dis- 
posed of for many years. Senator Plumb opposed the 
claim from the first, believing it to be unjust and the 
result of the afterthought of Ilolladay in the days of 
his declining fortunes. As we have seen, Colonel Plumb 
had been stationed at Fort Halleck, on this line, in 1865, 
with a part of the Eleventh Kansas, and for a time he 
had operated mail coaches with his cavalry horses, 
his men acting as drivers and escorts. He was familiar 
with many of the items set out in the claim, had seen 
the station-buildings and knew their value, as well as 



FORTY-SIXTH CONGRESS 24. f ) 

the value of corn and other supplies. He was certain 
that the claim was for losses which had been enormously 
exaggerated. His speeches on this claim are valuable 
to the historian, and contain much information to be 
found nowhere else. 

On the 15th of February Flumb introduced an amend- 
ment to the Constitution of the United States, provid- 
ing that " The manufacture and sale of all intoxicating 
liquors, and the importation of such liquors from for- 
eign countries, except for scientific, medical, and me- 
chanical purposes, in any portion of the United States 
and the Territories thereof, are forever prohibited." 

The bill for extinguishing the Indian title to lands in 
the Indian Territory through a Commission was de- 
bated at this session. Plumb offered many amend- 
ments to the bill, all calculated to protect the rights of 
the Indians under their treaties. There were many 
sharp passages between him and Senator Hoar, Plumb 
reading once from a historv of Massachusetts an em- 
barrassing extract showing how the Indians of that 
State had been destroyed. 

On the question of the amount of interest the Govern- 
ment would pay on its funded debt Senator Plumb was 
frequently heard. He insisted that the bonds could be 
funded at a rate not exceeding three per cent. In the 
debates it was said that in New York there were two 
men who could at any time command $50,000,000 in 
greenbacks, and, with these bills, raid the Treasury and 
deplete the gold reserve. To this Plumb replied that 
the greenbacks were not by their terms redeemable in 
gold. And that to sell securities enough to raise such 
a sum would so reduce their value or the value of the 
properties they represented that any profit which might 
be made with the gold would be more than offset by 
losses. He was in favor of paying the obligations of 
the Government in any kind of money wanted, provided 
it was required for legitimate business. But in case 



244 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

someone came with $25,000,000 or f 50,000,000 in green- 
backs only to raid the Treasury in his own interest and 
said " I want gold " it would be the privilege and duty 
of the Secretary to say, " Bring up your cart and take 
silver." That reply would stop any such raid. 

Plumb had early introduction to the scheme to an- 
nually raid the Treasury by means of the River and 
Harbor Bill. There never has been any other measure 
before Congress equal to that bill for large appropria- 
tions and small results. In his judgment such meager 
returns for the enormous expenditures resulted from 
lack of a definite plan or system of carrying on the 
work. He had never known of the completion of any 
particular piece of work. He opposed the expenditures 
of money on streams incapable of being made perma- 
nently navigable and to produce a navigation " to carry 
turpentine and coon-skins " to market, claiming that 
by the precedent, Kansas streams ought to be made 
navigable. He could show along them a product of 
enough volume and value to warrant the work — 40,- 
000,000 bushels of wheat and 200,000,000 bushels of 
corn, in addition to live-stock and many other things. 



CHAPTER XXXIX 

THE NOMINATION OF GARFIELD 

In 1880 the greenback movement was receding. It 
bad never seriously threatened the supremacy of the 
Republican party in Kansas, but it had caused some 
anxiety. Its principal distinction is that it was the 
forerunner of Populism. 

Kansas was a Blaine State, but having within her 
borders thousands of old soldiers it was but natural 
that there should be a strong sentiment for General 
Grant. The State was entitled to six votes in the 
National Republican Convention. To avoid a factional 
division in the party ten delegates were elected. Of 
these four were for Grant, and were called contestants. 
The ten were seated with but six votes. 1 It appears, 
however, that the whole number voted. The ballots 
show that four votes were always cast for Grant, and 
six were cast for Blaine and finally for Garfield. 2 

It has been held that Garfield was loyal to Sherman 
and that he would have refused the nomination had 
not Senator Hoar, Chairman of the Convention, " taken 
him off his feet" at a critical moment. This is not 
borne out by the experience of some of the Kansas 
delegates. 

Senator Plumb was at the head of the Kansas dele- 
gation. B. F. Simpson was next in influence; all were 
the political and personal friends of Plumb. Through 



i See Wader's Annals of Kansas, entry for June 8, 1880, second 
edition, p. 880. 
2 See Balch's Life and Public Career of James A. Garfield. 

245 



24G THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

Simpson Senator Conkling sought the Kansas vote for 
Grant, but Simpson referred him to Plumb. Conkling 
saw Plumb and tendered him a blank sheet of paper with 
the request that he bring Kansas to the support of 
Grant and write a stipulation for any political favor 
whatever on that sheet, assuring him that the paper 
would be signed by himself and Senators Cameron and 
Logan, and, if required, it would be signed by General 
Grant, then at Milwaukee, and returned in the morning 
before the convention assembled. This offer Plumb re- 
ported to Simpson, and it was discussed by them in an 
indifferent way. The State convention had by resolu- 
tion pledged the support of Kansas to Blaine. While 
Senator Plumb was not unfriendly to General Grant 
he would do nothing against the expressed sentiment 
of his State. 

Immediately after supper on Monday Plumb requested 
Simpson to go with him to Garfield's room in the Grand 
Pacific Hotel. Garfield was evidently expecting Plumb 
and met him at the door. They sat down on Garfield's 
large canvas-covered trunk in a corner of the room 
and apart from the others — Major Swaim, a judge ad- 
vocate in the army, and Sherwin, postmaster at Cleve- 
land, Ohio. These sat with Simpson at a table. Other 
delegates came in, among them Campbell, of West Vir- 
ginia, and Benjamin ITarrison, both of whom sat at 
the table. While Garfield and Plumb were engaged in 
earnest conversation, those at the table talked of the 
break from the leading candidates which all believed 
to be near. The Wisconsin delegation had but one 
purpose, which was to make some deal by which their 
delegate, Cassidy, should be appointed to the first va- 
cancy which should occur in the Supreme Court. This 
Mas generally known to the delegates. When those in 
the room were planning for Garfield to profit by the 
coming break in the convention they came down to 
Wisconsin. Harrison said he knew Cassidy well and 



THE NOMINATION OF GARFIELD 247 

would go out aud find him and bring him in. Cassidy's 
pretensions to the Supreme Court were not taken seri- 
ously by anyone, and what he should be given if he 
would throw the Wisconsin delegation to Garfield at 
the right time was the question. Simpson spoke 
promptly and said, " Give him anything he wants." The 
crowd laughed, and all looked at Garfield. Simpson 
feared he had spoken too plainly and said so. Garfield 
replied, " No, Simpson, you are just in earnest." 

At this juncture Plumb rose suddenly and said to 
Garfield that he would see him later, and he and Simp- 
son returned to Kansas headquarters at the Palmer 
House. There Plumb left Simpson. It was not later 
than eight o'clock. Plumb returned after midnight; 
he did not say where he had been, but from what he 
did say Simpson was certain that he had again seen 
Garfield and w r as sure of his nomination. The Blaine 
votes of Kansas went to Garfield the next day. 



CHAPTER XL 

FORTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS 
SPECIAL SESSION OP THE SENATE. 

A special session of the Senate was called for the 
4th of March, 1881, to confirm the cabinet and other 
appointments of President Garfield. 

The Senate was then evenly divided between the two 
great parties, and standing committees were secured to 
the Republicans by the deciding vote of the Vice-Presi- 
dent. Senator Plumb, at this time, secured his first 
committee-chairmanship — that of Public Lands. He 
was also placed on the committees of Appropriation and 
Agriculture. 

The session was devoted to executive business. Few 
legislative matters were mentioned. On the day be- 
fore adjournment a resolution was reported requiring 
certain Departments to submit rolls of their employes. 
On this resolution Senator Plumb made known his 
views on the Civil Service. He did not favor the estab- 
lishment of an office-holding class at Washington. He 
opposed the civil-service principle as it was then under- 
stood and has since developed, and for good reasons. 
He believed that the business of the Government could 
be satisfactorily done only by a well-planned system 
of rotation in office. He could not believe a man who 
had worked in an office for twenty-five years was equal 
in efficiency to one of the same capacity who had worked 
but two or three years. The younger man would be 
more vigorous and bring to his work more enthusiasm. 
It was his idea that the new blood of the country, the 
men representing new communities, new interests, and 

248 



FORTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS 249 

new ideas should be given opportunity to work for the 
Government. Their presence there would make the De- 
partment more responsive to the business needs of the 
country. He believed in overhauling things occasionally 
and letting in the light — in exhibiting to the people 
the manner in which their affairs were transacted. It 
was his judgment that a person should be dismissed 
from the public service while still able to make his 
way in the world, and not become helpless on the hands 
of the Government. Failure to do this would inevitably 
bring the civil-pension list, which is now being advocated. 

SECOND SPECIAL SESSION OP THE SENATE. 

The accession to the Presidency of Chester A. Arthur, 
on the death of President Garfield, made necessary a 
second special session of the Senate within a year. It 
began on the 10th and adjourned on the 29th of October. 
Only executive business was transacted. 

Nelson W. Aldrich, of Rhode Island, was present 
first at this session, having been elected to the vacancy 
caused by the death of Senator Burnside. 

FIRST SESSION OF CONGRESS. 

The first session of the Forty-seventh Congress be- 
gan on the 5th of December, 1881. It was of unusual 
length, adjourning on the 6th of the following August. 
The most important matter of general legislation con- 
sidered at this session was the Funding Act. The pur- 
pose of this act was to reduce the interest on the Gov- 
ernment bonds to three per cent. Plumb favored it. 
President Hayes, however, vetoed it, and much dissatis- 
faction resulted. Senator Sherman introduced a bill 
having in view the same purpose. Its terms were very 
different from the former bill and Senator Plumb op- 
posed it. He succeeded in amending it, but it was never 
satisfactory to him. 






250 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

At this session Plumb attacked the policy of ac- 
cumulating vast reserves in the National Treasury. 
The money was thus taken out of the channels of busi- 
ness and locked up. He proposed to fix the amount of 
the reserve at $100,000,000, but was of the opinion that 
even that sum was twice as much as it should be. It 
was his judgment that the money should be used in pay- 
ment of the public debt and thrown back into circu- 
lation. 

SECOND SESSION. 

The regular short session began on the 4th of De- 
cember, 1882, and expired by constitutional limitation 
on the 3d of March, 1883. The appropriation bills oc- 
cupied most of the time. Nothing of a political nature 
was brought forward by either party, and the session 
was uneventful. Senator Plumb was in charge of some 
of the appropriation bills. By the ready and intel- 
ligible use of statistics he made his speeches effective. 
He had ever on his tongue's end an inexhaustible sup- 
ply relating to the subject he expected to discuss thor- 
oughly. Statistics had, of course, always been em- 
ployed in the Senate by orators, but Plumb simplified 
them, verified them at the Departments and combined 
them with appropriate and convincing documents. He 
reduced their use to a sort of science, and his figures 
were always intended to enlighten, never to confuse. 
After his use of them with such telling effect in his; 
speech criticising the administration of the General Land i 
oilier under Mr. Cleveland and in his debate on fcha 
Funding I Jill their use in a similar manner was com- 
mon in the Senate. 

There was some debate, on the civil service at this 
session, and on this subject Senator Plumb expressed! 
himself freely and with force. He was never satisfied 
with civil service as it was established. lie suggested 
a different method, but could not secure its adoption. 



CHAPTER XLI 

FUNDING ACT — TREASURY SURPLUS 

Tub question of funding certain portions of the pub- 
lie debt came up for consideration in the Forty-seventh 
Congress. The Forty-sixth Congress had passed a law 
to redeem the bonds bearing a high rate of interest 
with the proceeds from the sale of bonds bearing in- 
terest at the rate of three per cent., and also to redeem 
bonds to an amount not to exceed $50,000,000 with the 
surplus gold and silver coin in the Treasury. This 
was a House Bill. In the Senate Plumb voted for it, 
and was criticised by some of his party associates for 
doing so. John Sherman was Secretary of the Treas- 
ury. To strengthen the public credit, as he believed, 
lie led the movement to demonetize silver and make the 
Government bonds payable in gold. 

This was a new condition applied to the public debt. 
It changed the contract in favor of the bondholders, 
adding many hundred millions of dollars to the obliga- 
tions of the Government. The bondholders were op- 
posed to surrendering bonds drawing five or six per 
cent, interest for bonds drawing but three per cent. 
Through his own influence and that which he could 
exert through the national banks, Sherman, as Secre- 
tary of the Treasury, caused President Hayes to veto 
the funding bill. This veto proved very unpopular. 
National banks came to see that they had been deceived. 
Sherman had in the meantime been elected to the Sen- 
ate. On the first day of the session he introduced a 
funding bill for bonds bearing interest at three per 

251 






252 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

cent, to the amount of $300,000,000, the proceeds from 
the sale of which were to be used to redeem outstand- 
ing bonds to the same amount. The bonds to be re- 
deemed were specified in the bill. Those bearing the 
higher rates of interest were not included. No pro- 
vision was made for the use of any money in the treasury 
for the payment of bonds, nor was any part of the sur- 
plus revenues to be used for the purpose. The interest 
rate was the only feature of the bill vetoed by President 
Hayes which Sherman incorporated in his bill. And 
later he modified it by reducing the amount of bonds 
to be used under it to $200,000,000. 

Senator Plumb opposed Sherman's bill for a number 
of reasons. Plumb's opposition always meant all he 
could do to carry the day and win. He criticised the 
omission of the bill to take into consideration the sur- 
plus revenues, then running up to more than $100,000,- 
000 annually. In the Senate on the 12th of January, 
1882, he delivered a strong speech against the bill. It 
is replete with details. He arraigned Senator Sherman 
and called him to account for favoring interests always 
inimical to the people, for being eternally for the bond- 
holders and against the Government. Sherman was 
an able man, and finance was his specialty. The Sen- 
ate and the country were amazed that Plumb should 
challenge his views — so boldly antagonize him. But 
Plumb felt supreme confidence in himself. He had 
reached that development of his powers when he was 
sure of his ability to maintain himself against any of 
his associates in the Senate. He surprised even his 
friends by the array of statistics he presented and the 
skill with which he marshaled his figures. 

This speech marked an era in the Senatorial career 
of Plumb. Thereafter he ranked as one of the big 
men of the Senate. He refused to recognize the right 
of any man, no matter what his eminence, to impose 
what he believed to be unjust conditions on the people. 



FUNDING ACT — TREASURY SURPLUS 253 

He made a number of speeches on this bill, fairly de- 
feating Sherman, and, by amendment, putting his own 
impress on the measure. 

Plumb opposed the practice of accumulating an ex- 
traordinary reserve in the Treasury for redemption pur- 
poses. It sometimes amounted to one-sixth of the total 
circulating medium of the country, and while held in the 
Treasury was of course withdrawn from business, which 
was embarrassed to that extent. It was his idea that 
the reserve should be reduced and fixed at a certain sum, 
1100,000,000, though he believed $50,000,000 to be 
enough. He said the Secretary should be deprived of 
discretion in the matter of the amount of this fund : 

We have had a constant bugbear about this question, which 
has been an insult to the intelligence of the people. It has 
been assumed that financial questions were not to be settled on a 
common-sense basis, but on some juggle — by a play upon words, 
upon some patent plan of which a certain class of persons had a 
monopoly, and in which the body of the people had no part or 
lot, and in which their only share was to bear without complaint 
the burdens put upon them. I would rather to-day have the 
judgment, the common sense, the sublimated common sense, 
which is said to be the foundation of law, possessed by the com- 
mon people of the United States — by the mechanics, mer- 
chants, farmers — and upon which the stability of the Govern- 
ment depends more than upon the peculiar plans or features of 
administration, than depend alone on the judgment of men who 
claim to be experts on this question. It is a question that affects 
the farmer on his farm, the homesteader on his claim, and the 
merchant in his counting house, just as much as it affects the 
banker, just as much as it affects the bondholder, just as much 
as it affects the capitalist. It affects all the people near and 
remote, large and small ; and legislation should be designed for 
their benefit. It is the nearly universal judgment of the people 
of the United States that the Treasury keeps on hand more 
money than is needed. It is estimated that we have about 
$1,200,000,000 altogether of circulating medium. More than 
one-sixth of that is held in the Treasury of the United States 
idle and largely unnecessary. It is too much. It is embarrass- 
ing the business of the country; it is in the way of its enterprise, 
its growth, and development. 



254 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

On the point that the public debt ought to be paid 
as rapidly as possible Plumb produced figures to show 
that with the surplus revenue then collected by the 
Government $135,000,000 could be paid annually: 

It should be done in order that this country may present to 
all the world the striking contrast which exists between a debt- 
paying and out-of-debt Republic, a Government resting wholly 
upon free consent of the governed, and the monarchical countries 
of the Old 'World where a national debt is considered a national 
blessing and where it is one of the means whereby class-rule is 
maintained. . . . 

Five hundred million dollars of the debt — more than one- 
third of the total — represented by what is known as the "VVin- 
dom bonds, is in the best possible condition to meet this desire 
and determination for payment. It can be paid literally day by 
day, and thus not only save interest but prevent an undue and 
unwise accumulation of the money of the country in the Treasury 
while it is needed in the channels of business. Under this happy 
condition of things the debt is disappearing like snow under the 
shining sun. 

A year ago when this subject was under consideration a Sy 2 % 
bond^ or rather a 5 and 6% bond extended at oy>% interest, 
maturing at the option of the Government and never at the 
option of the holder, was something which had not entered 
into the mind of any person in this Chamber or elsewhere. 
"When the new administration came in it was confronted with 
this problem : Should it go before the people carrying upon its 
back the legacy of the preceding administration that left the 
country an unnecessary expenditure of $1,230,000 a month? 
The then President of the United States and his constitutional 
advisers felt that it would crush the Republican party in every 
Si ate of this Union if they did so, and something had to be done 
to protect tin- party and save the country from this enormous 
expense. The question was whether an extra session of Congress 
should be called, and the President halted between two opinions. 
It was the absorbing question. There are a dozen men under 
my eve who earnestly counseled with the President and his con- 
stitutional advisers as to the policy to be pursued. There was 
divided counsel. An extra session was believed by many to be 
I lie only remedy, and others believed the remedy to be worse than 
the disease. Bui all agreed that the disease was bad enough. 
It looked like defeat in cither event and all because of the 



FUNDING ACT — TREASURY SURPLUS 255 

veto which the Senator from Ohio (Mr. Sherman) so strongly 
commends. 

Let ns take the national debt out of the way, and if the 
national banking system is good enough to stand by itself it is 
good enough to be adopted de novo. If it is good, enough to 
commend itself to the judgment of the American people irrespec- 
tive of the existence of the national debt, then I think the 
American people as represented on this floor and. in the other 
branch of Congress will be able to find it out. 

All the way through, whenever we come to discuss economic 
questions, when we come to discuss financial questions, we are 
embarrassed by the consideration that we have got a national 
debt pressing upon us and that we must not do certain things 
because it touches the national debt, or we must do it because 
of the national debt. I say that every interest in this land is 
embarrassed by this question of the national debt — the tariff, 
internal-revenue, taxation, questions of finance — and until we 
get rid of that we shall never be able to discuss these questions 
upon a platform which is solely and only for the best interests 
of the country and its people. 

There has been a good deal of talk about the foreign trade 
of this country, and we have had talk about free ships and about 
tariffs as entering into the consideration of this subject. It may 
be, as no doubt it is, an assumption on the part of some one who 
does not live within the sound of the roar of salt water to talk 
about matters of this kind. We have been in the habit of leav- 
ing to those who lived on the shores of our great ocean the dis- 
cussion of these questions, those of us who live in the interior 
limiting ourselves to voting appropriations and following the 
suggestions they make. 

I say for myself that the foreign trade of this country, the 
shipping interest of this country, will never be revived until we 
have completely reversed our policy of internal improvements, 
until we have filled up this great nation with railroads. Con- 
temporaneous with the sweeping of our shipping from the ocean, 
as a consequence of the rebellion came the national debt, and 
Boston and New York and all the money centers of this country, 
in place of putting their money back in shipping, put it into 
the national debt, representing not new enterprises, not new 
creations, not new schemes for the development of the country, 
but representing property that was destroyed, houses burnt, 
powder burnt, cannon, muskets, munitions of war generally, 
everything that was destructive ; and the national debt to-day 
represents a hole in the ground ; it represents nothing on the top 
of the earth and nothing created, except the union of these 



256 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

States, good enough, it is true, for what it cost, but entirely apart 
from the purpose for which I am discussing this question. 

Had the policy urged by Plumb been adopted the 
public debt would have been reduced every year. The 
money represented by it would now be in circulation 
— would now be transacting business and contributing 
to industrial activity and material prosperity instead 
of representing loss, a deficit. But that would have 
pleased the people and displeased the rich, so it was 
not done. 



CHAPTER XLII 

CIVIL SERVICE 

Early in the movement for the establishment of an 
efficient civil service Plumb declared his position on 
that subject. On the 22d of December, 1882, he said : 

We have now a good civil service, as has been universally con- 
fessed. It might be better; and when we come to the discussion 
as to what will make it better there is where we differ. I believe 
myself, seriously, that it needs new blood ; that it needs rotation 
rather than permanency. Other people think differently. I can 
see, I think, the shadow of a coming civil-pension list and of an 
official class in the efforts of those people who now, either openly 
or insidiously, are demanding that there shall be permanency of 
tenure. 

The civil-pension list has not yet come, though as 
a result of the permanency of tenure, which has come, 
it is inevitable. The Departments are rapidly filling 
up with old men. One of the most distressing scenes 
to be witnessed in Washington is that of dependent 
relatives carrying these old clerks daily into the De- 
partment offices and seating them at desks where they 
sit all day helplessly staring into vacancy, or, at most, 
fumbling aimlessly among unimportant papers. So far 
as work goes they cannot turn a hand, cannot lift a 
finger. They draw salaries. Younger clerks must be 
had in sufficient number to do their work, swelling the 
rolls and the expenses of the Government enormously. 
The official class, the coming of which Senator Plumb 
feared and predicted, has arrived. It is entrenched at 
Washington. The Government has not the courage to 

257 



258 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

attack it. Powerful newspapers champion it. No man 
there speaks of it but to commend it. 

It was the idea of Senator Plumb that tenure in 
office should be limited. No employee should be re- 
tained beyond the period when he can earn a living at 
some other calling. He should be made to understand 
that and urged to prepare for it, and then compelled 
to again take up the burden of life while still able to 
do good work at trade or calling. He should not be 
permitted to become a dead weight on the country. 
The one argument in favor of the present plan is that 
the experience of the clerk should not be lost to the 
Government after it has trained him. On this point 
Plumb said : 

I am reminded of what occurred in one of the Depart- 
ments of the Government when I suggested that some 
little rotation which would let in somebody from west of the 
Mississippi would be a good thing; and when the head of the 
Department said to me, " I cannot run this Department without 
the men that I find here," and pointing to a man who came into 
the room, he said, " Without that man I would be like a ship 
at sea without a rudder." It only illustrates what is the fact, 
that the man who comes into the position of a cabinet minister 
to hold during the pleasure of the President, and at the utmost 
during a four years' term, desiring to be rid of the annoyance 
and responsibility that would come from questioning his em- 
ployees in regard to their capacity, or from any way disturbing 
the existing order of things, for fear lie would find a hornets' 
nest about his ears, simply sits down in the hole which is made 
for him. If he is square and the hole happens to be round, they 
round him off; and if he is round and the hole is square, he is 
made square so as to fit it. That is the function of a cabinet 
minister with reference to the personnel of those who render ser- 
vice under him, and it is inevitable that it should be so. 

Men who are Cabinet Ministers like their ease as well as any- 
body else, and they find their ease and their comfort in taking 
things as they find them, and in keeping them so. The letters 
being brought to them regularly every morning to be signed, in 
accordance with the universal custom of the Department, it is 
easier to sign them than it is to make innovation, reflecting 
as they do how easy it is to carry on the business of a great 



CIVIL SERVICE 259 

Department with a lot of clerks indurated and brought up to a 
certain perfunctory performance of the duties in such a way that 
the business of the day is ground around and brought up to the 
front of the party who is to sign the papers and is to become 
nominally responsible for the performance of that duty, as 
though it were a piece of machinery, oiled and warranted not to 
get out of gear. 

Mr. President, we shall never have any responsibility in 
executive places under a system of that kind. We have got to 
run the Ithurial spear of public opinion through the whole busi- 
ness and keep it there, turning it round and round, and make 
the service every day and every year responsible to the changing 
phases of public opinion, to a quickening sense of public opinion, 
and make the men whom we elect to office and put at the head 
of this great establishment personally responsible for every single 
person in it, by reason of some power of selection we give them 
under the law, and by reason of the duty we impose upon them 
of performing the public business economically and faithfully 
and honestly. 

Senator Plumb knew the evils of the old spoils sys- 
tem to be equally as great as the evils he saw in a 
permanent tenure of office under civil service. Any 
plan which avoids one evil must take care not to foster 
the other. His ideas were given in this debate : 

It seems to me that which is necessary to meet the public 
opinion of which I have spoken is a bill which should briefly put 
upon the President of the United States the duty of establishing 
rules and regulations which should draw into the service com- 
petent persons in all its branches, and from the different por- 
tions of the country in proportion to their representation in the 
lower branch of Congress, and irrespective of any recommenda- 
tions of any person in official life whatever, upon rules which 
should fix, as nearly as rules can, qualifications suitable for the 
discharge of the duties to which these different persons are 
called ; and then which, in addition to that, should prevent solic- 
itation entirely, or the recognition of solicitation, in the appoint- 
ments, and which should similarly prevent the assessment of 
employees in the public service. Such a bill would meet this 
public demand ; and I think that is as far as we ought to go — 
we want, as I think, to impose duty and responsibility upon the 
President. We do not want to put in the shadow of that fierce 
light which is said to beat upon the throne, and which ought to 



260 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

beat upon it in a nation in which all are sovereigns, that which 
takes away from the responsibility oi' the occupant of the throne. 

Senator Plumb continued: 

Yet we are setting up here an irresponsible tribunal, one with- 
out any popular connection, without any popular responsibility, 
which is to continue, President or no President, Democratic or 
Republican, to simply determine the clerical qualifications of 
the persons who are to be appointed as clerks and who, in turn, 
of course, depute that to somebody else; leaving out of account 
absolutely those things which are of a thousandfold more con- 
sequence in the faithful discharge of duties, the moral character 
and qualification of men, which are not to be determined by 
examination at all, and which cannot be determined by answer- 
ing any particular set of questions, nor by the certificate of any- 
body. 

That the evils of the permanency of tenure which, he 
pointed out might not follow Senator Plumb offered 
this amendment: 

That all persons appointed as the result of the examination 
herein provided for shall hold office six years, unless sooner 
removed for cause, and at the expiration of said period may be 
reappointed to the same grade of office without re-examination; 
but no person shall be permitted to remain in the service more 
than twelve years, and shall be ineligible to be reappointed to 
any of the grades for which examination is herein provided after 
such service. 

But it was rejected. The result is much worse than 
even he predicted. The British Circumlocution office 
ridiculed by Dickens has been duplicated at Washing- 
ton. What Senator Plumb sought was a clerical force 
which, through its creation, was responsible, prompt, 
efficient, always responsive to public opinion, — which 
reflected the best features of our social life and retained 
its vigor and virility. 



CHAPTER XLIII 

REELECTION 

In 1882 Governor St. John stood for election to a 
third consecutive term. In Kansas the custom was 
that puhlic officials should have two terms provided the 
first one was satisfactory to the people. St. John was 
opposed by a faction in the Republican party which 
was not in favor of the prohibitory liquor laws, for 
which it was supposed he was largely responsible. 
Plumb was in favor of these laws. 

The campaign was an exciting one. Republican 
clubs were organized to support the Democratic candi- 
date for Governor. It was feared that the demoraliza- 
tion might extend to the whole State ticket and even to 
the Legislature. Plumb made speeches all over the 
State, large audiences greeting him everywhere. He 
and Governor St. John went much together, closing the 
canvass with a monster meeting in Wyandotte (Kansas 
City, Kansas). The tide had turned in favor of the 
Republican ticket, but too late for the party to receive 
the full benefit. G. W. Glick, an Ohio Democrat, a 
pioneer in Kansas, a man of great force and probity, 
and the personal friend of Plumb, defeated St. John 
by a substantial majority. The Legislature was largely 
Republican. There was no opposition in the Republican 
party to Senator Plumb, and many influential Demo- 
crats favored his reelection. No such political condi- 
tions had existed in Kansas up to that time. A short 
review of the work of Plumb for his State, apart from 

261 



2G2 THE LIFE OF PEESTON B. PLUMB 

that for the general Government, may serve to explain 
this situation. 

In his six years in the Senate Plumb had broadened, 
grown, strengthened day by day. He bad subordinated 
everything to his senatorial duties. All the interests 
of Kansas were protected. More than $1,500,000 had 
been returned to the State for military expenditures 
during the Civil War, for Indian depredations, and 
other claims. He had secured the first money ever 
appropriated for Federal buildings in Kansas. In 1881 
the sum of $30,000 was allowed for the erection of bar- 
racks at Fort Leavenworth, and, the following year, 
$90,000 for improvement at that fort. He bad begun 
the movement for Training Schools, the assembling 
there of supplies for western forts, and other additions 
to its equipment* which makes Fort Leavenworth one 
of the great military posts of the country. Kansas had 
received $270,000 under the terms of the bill requiring 
the Government to pay over to the State five per cent, 
of the proceeds of the sales of public lands in their 
bounds. Amendments to the land laws in favor of the 
settler and the homesteader had been enacted. He had 
protected the settlers on abandoned military and In- 
dian reservations, giving them first right to purchase 
their claims at appraised value. Additional Govern- 
ment land offices had been established. The postal 
service had been extended to all parts of Kansas, new 
routes and improvements on old ones being so fre- 
quently noticed in the papers that Wilder in his Annals 
quotes the following: 

Senator Plumb has secured postal-car service on the Kansas 
Pacific Railroad, and on the Frisco from St. Louis to Wichita, 
beginning July 1. 

Dining his first term Plumb's mail averaged about 
sixty-five letters a day. To these he replied with his 
nun hand. They were on all conceivable subjects, and 
some of them required elaborate replies. 



REFLECTION 263 

It was the desire of Plumb that he be reelected on 
his record. If the people were satisfied with it he 
wished them to approve and endorse it. He was re- 
elected on the 24th of January, 1883, by a vote of 127 
to 36. In casting his vote, Judge L. W. Borton of 
Clyde, Cloud County, a Democrat, said that he " de- 
sired to represent his constituents by voting for Pres- 
ton B. Plumb, the urim and thummim of Kansas." 

The press was cordial in its comment on his reelec- 
tion, and this was not confined altogether to the Kansas 
papers. The Kansas City Times, Democratic and 
rabidly partisan, said, " Senator Plumb is in the prime 
of life, vigor and mature manhood. He is eminently 
a man of practical affairs, who has attained to accurate 
knowledge of the forces which move the public ma- 
chinery of this country." But it w r as the commendation 
of the home papers that moved Plumb. The judgment 
of his neighbors, those with whom he had struggled on 
the prairies and on the battlefields, the poor man on 
the frontier and the settler in his cabin, those for whom 
he had so often stood as champion in the Senate — 
what they said meant more to him than the plaudits of 
the mighty. The Topcka Capital said: 

The reelection of Senator Plumb by the full vote of his party 
in the Legislature, and practically without opposition from any 
source, is an event that deserves recognition with bonfires and 
illuminations. Taking it in all its bearings, it is one of the 
most significant occurrences in the history of the State. It 
signalizes a new departure, a long step forward, a sort of bap- 
tism of decorum and decency that must exalt the good name 
of Kansas as hardly any other one thing could. . . . Kansas has 
reached the period of maturity. . . . The compliment and honor 
of such an election can hardly be overestimated. It seems in- 
credible that a man should really have been elected Senator in 
Kansas, and for a second term, without being present, or with- 
out so much as passing around a box of cigars. No doubt 
Senator Plumb himself finds it difficult to realize that he has 
actually been reelected in this spontaneous and exceptional way, 
well as he knows that he deserves it. A triumph so signal and 



264 THE LIFE OF PEESTON B. PLUMB 

so flattering cannot fail to materially advance his standing and 
influence at the seat of Government and in the country at large. 

He is the only one so far of the Republican Senators seeking 
reelection who has succeeded without a struggle. That fact 
will have its weight, we may be sure ; and Kansas will reap the 
advantage of it in her Senators increased power to promote her 
interests. We but echo the general sentiment of the State — not 
of Republicans simply, but the best element of all parties when 
we cordially congratulate Colonel Plumb upon a victory which is 
alike highly honorable to him and markedly creditable to Kansas. 

The Topcka Commonwealth was the leading paper in 
Kansas at the time. On its editorial staff was Captain 
Henry King, who has so long and ably edited the St. 
Louis Globe-Democrat. It said: 

The reelection of Senator P. B. Plumb, by the Legislature, yes- 
terday, was a handsome tribute to a worthy public servant. 
Senator Plumb has made an industrious and capable officer, has 
at all times demeaned himself in a manner creditable alike to 
himself and the State, and his endorsement was so hearty and 
sincere, and so nearly unanimous, that it makes it possible for 
him to exert a greater power and influence in Washington than 
has ever been exercised by any citizen of our State. Colonel 
Plumb is peculiarly a man of the people. His political exalta- 
tion has not changed him in the least, and never will. Having 
spent the best years of his life in our State, he has encountered 
all the vicissitudes incident to the frontier, and whatever in- 
fluences preferment may exert upon the average member of the 
human family, it has failed to have any upon Colonel Plumb. 
He is an earnestly practical man, and in his intercourse with 
people carries a conviction of honesty and earnestness that cap- 
tivates. The average citizen finds something in him to admire. 
Quick to perceive, and ever ready for instant action; always 
hopeful and never lacking for ready expedients; a sympathetic 
heart and hand always ready to assist the unfortunate, he has 
so endeared himself to the people of Kansas, that to reelect him 
is but the simple carrying out of that kind regard and confidence 
so universally expressed at the polls last November. 



CHAPTER XLIV 

TELE FORTY-EIGHTH CONGRESS 

The Forty-eighth Congress met December 3, 1883. 
The Senate was controlled by the Republicans. Sen- 
ator Edmunds, of Vermont, was the temporary Presi- 
dent of the Senate. The House had a Democratic ma- 
jority, and John G. Carlisle, of Kentucky, was elected 
Speaker. 

The most important legislation attempted was that 
of fixing the Presidential succession. A bill for this 
purpose passed the Senate. It was rejected by the 
House, and did not become a law until 1885. 

It was expected that consideration of the tariff would 
occupy most of the time of the session. William R. 
Morrison, of Illinois, prepared a bill and introduced it 
in the House. There Randall, of Pennsylvania, a pro- 
tectionist Democrat, had great influence. He organized 
in his party in the House a strong opposition to any 
reform of the tariff, and succeeded in defeating the 
Morrison Bill before the Senate had an opportunity 
to consider it. This left the tariff an issue for the 
Presidential campaign of 1884, and it became the most 
important question. 

The reform of the judiciary, both State and national, 
was even at that time strongly demanded. No heed 
was taken when attention was called to the abuses 
which had marked the administration of justice by the 
courts. 

At that period labor was discontented, and marked 
hostility between it and capital developed. The 

2G5 



206 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

Knights of Labor extended its organization over the 
country in 1883, and the boycott, of Irish origin, was 
first resorted to in America. 

The question of maintaining the national-bank circu- 
lation in sufficient volume was considered. At that 
time there was a disposition to pay off the public debt 
and release the dead capital tied up in it for use in 
industrial development. The arguments made and 
principles announced by Plumb are pertinent to-day. 
December 12, 1883, he said, " I do not believe it is a 
question in which the bondholders have any interest, 
legal or moral, to be considered — I think the bond- 
holder himself may be entirely left out of the account. 
The payment of the public debt is a question of public 
policy, not a question as to whether a man who has the 
bonds of the Government wants his money or not." 
The destruction of the national-bank system was al- 
ways thrown across the path of those who advocated 
the payment of the national debt. This was usually 
done by Senator Sherman. To this feature of the ques- 
tion Senator Plumb addressed himself, and said: 

If the element of flexibility, if the element of extension, is ; 
left out of the national-bank system, it possesses no merit what- 
ever, because it goes without saving, I think, that the Govern- 
ment of the United States can issue a piece of paper directly, 
which shall be of as great value, as perfectly safe, as absolutely 
current as a national bank can issue, because it comes back to 
the same source. So, therefore, the national-bank system, both 
because it cannot enlarge now, even if the reduction of the 
public debt was to stop, would prove inadequate for the future, 
and hecause of the fact that the bonds are to be paid and en- 
tirely wiped out, and that very soon, preventing it even from 
maintaining its present status for any length of lime. For these 
two reasons that system migh.1 as well he left out of account 
in any prognostication about the public debt. Something else 
musi take its place. And it is the vrisdoro of statesmanship, of 
good judgment, <>f patriotism to provide now, or begin to provide 
now, for something which shall take its place. 

Plumb was willing to go as far as anyone in com- 



THE FORTY-EIGHTH CONGRESS 267 

mending national banks for the good that was in them. 
The national-bank system was a wise one in its incep- 
tion. It had performed a most useful function at a 
time of great peril to the country, and had provided 
banks for discount and deposit purposes. He was not 
in favor of a currency based on State, county, or town- 
ship bonds, saying that a return to a State-bank cur- 
rency would be preferable to such a system. For 
every dollar of national-bank circulation that should 
be surrendered he favored the issuance of an equivalent 
dollar in Treasury notes. It would not be necessary 
that the new notes should be legal-tender, but it would 
be no trouble to keep them at par. They would then 
serve the same end as the legal-tender notes and be 
just as useful as the notes of the national banks. 

At this session Plumb supported a measure intro- 
duced by Senator Miller, of New York, for the forma- 
tion of a Senate Committee of Agriculture and Forestry. 
Comparing the farmers of the country with the people 
of the District of Columbia, who, he said, were given 
a million and a half to two millions out of the national 
treasury annually, he insisted that it was not merely 
a matter of grace but a matter of right that seven- 
twelfths of the people of the United States should be 
given that recognition which was accorded to a small 
portion of them in that District. The farmers had 
never received practical recognition at the hands of 
Congress. They pay a larger proportion of the taxes 
of the United States than any other class of people. 
Everything they use is taxed, and in favor of nothing 
that they raise is anything done, ne was in favor of 
extending them substantial recognition. 

In those times no session of Congress passed without 
the consideration of the forfeiture of land grants which 
had not been earned by railroads. At this session 
Plumb succeeded in restoring to the public domain a 
number of such grants, among them one to the Iron 



2GS THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

Mountain and Southern Railroad from Pilot Knob, Mis- 
souri, to Helena, Arkansas. 

Against the aping of foreign frivolities Senator Plumb 
never failed to register protest. An ensign in the Navy 
bad been tendered a decoration by Austria and applied to 
Congress for permission to accept it. The matter came 
up in the Senate in January, 1884, and mustered enougli 
votes to pass, but Plumb opposed it, saying: 

I think wo have enough toadyism in all branches of our serv- 
ice that have contact with foreign people. I have observed 
something of that even in the diplomatic service. I think, on the 
whole, we have some men in the diplomatic service who are more 
proud of the distinctions they get at the hands of the Govern- 
ments to which they are accredited than they are of the com- 
mission by which they are accredited. I think it is a good time 
to inculcate a wholesome American sentiment, and have it under- 
stood that we shall not hereafter give permission to any one of 
our officials to be decorated by any foreign Government whatso- 
ever. 

It seems to me, Mr. President, as though we are just getting 
as a nation into this condition, that the only things we import 
into this country are the vices, the frills, the furbelows, and the 
fashions from abroad, and the only thing we export is a class 
of people who are but too glad to get out of this country and 
spend their money disporting themselves among foreign people. 
I am told that we have consuls abroad who spend a good deal 
of their time in berating the country whose commission they 
bear and whose salary they regularly draw. I am in favor of 
protecting this country as much as I can against the importation 
of these ideas, against these un-American habits, and for incul- 
cating in all branches of the public service a good, old-fashioned, 
wholesome love of American principles and American institu- 
tions. 

Dudley C. TTaskoll was a worthy Kansan. ITe rep- 
resented the Second District in Congress. In the tariff 
debates he had shown great ability, and he was in fact 
the leader on the Republican side. He w r as a man of 
sturdy virtues, lie was a pioneer in Kansas and was 
one of Senator riumb's earliest friends. His death 



THE FORTY-EIGHTH CONGRESS 269 

was sudden and unexpected and caused a .shock in 
Kansas. On February 27, 1884, memorials were pro- 
nounced for him in Congress. That of Plumb bears 
evidences of previous preparation, something a speech 
or address of his rarely received. The first para- 
graph is: 

Mr. President, respect for the dead is a pervading instinct of 
our common humanity. To honor the memory of the departed 
is regarded as a sacred trust, to the faithful discharge of which 
affection and friendship are irrevocably committed. Nor is any 
good man's fame and memory left to the sole guardianship of 
those who knew and loved him in life. There is something in 
the silent helplessness of the coffin and the scpulcher that 
appeals with peculiar and pathetic force to the chivalry of human 
nature. The discord of party passion, the conflict of individual 
interest, the fierce rivalry of personal ambitions, and all that 
is base and unworthy in the struggle for precedence and 
supremacy retire in silence from that presence whose mastery 
over the combined forces of nature is attested by the unnum- 
bered dead of all ages. 

On the 18th of April, 1884, Plumb presented the ap- 
propriation bill for the Post-Office Department. He 
moved that the Senate proceed to the consideration of 
the bill, that its first reading be dispensed with, and 
that it be read by paragraphs for amendment, which 
was done. Then he briefly sketched the main features 
of the bill — the conditions of the postal-service, growth 
of the Department, source of income, and amount of 
revenue expected. He submitted a tabular statement 
complete in every detail of the administration of the 
postal-system. To every question he replied promptly 
and with such complete information that one might 
have supposed that he had spent his life in that particu- 
lar branch of the service. And before the hour for ad- 
journment the bill, carrying fifty millions of money, 
had passed. The account of its consideration fills six- 
teen pages of the Congressional Record, but Plumb 
had not once taken his seat. He stood the whole time at 



270 THE LIFE OF PKESTON B. PLUMB 

Ms desk ready to make full and instant reply to all 
questions. 

In the spring of 1884 there was an epidemic of the 
foot-and-mouth disease among the cattle of Kansas. 
Governor Glick convened the Legislature in special ses- 
sion, and sent a telegram requesting Plumb to secure 
the aid of the Government in stamping out the plague. 
On the 17th of March he secured the passage by the 
Senate of a bill appropriating $50,000 for the suppres- 
sion of the disease in Kansas and other States and 
Territories. 

The session closed July 7, 1884. 

SECOND SESSION. 

The Second Session of the Forty-eighth Congress be- 
gan December 1, 1884. Blaine had been defeated for 
the Presidency. It was a session of expectancy. The 
country had not in the past twenty-four years had a 
Democratic President, and there was a sense of uncer- 
tainty. This was noticeable in Congress, where a dis- 
position to wait on the movement of the incoming 
administration developed. 

On the 4th of December there came up the question 
of the leasing of Indian lands to cattlemen. Plumb 
saw that the breaking-up of the Indian government in 
the Indian Territory could not long be postponed. He 
was not willing, he said, that the opportunity should 
pass without calling attention to the fact that much 
of the land in the Indian Territory and elsewhere em- 
braced in reservations was fit for agriculture, and that 
it was land which the Indians did not need. The pub- 
lic domain was being exhausted of its fertile lands, and 
it was proper for Congress to consider whether it was 
not time to open some of the Indian lands for settle- 
ment at an early day. ITe called attention to the tract 
of land suitable for that purpose, to which the Indian 



THE FOKTY-EIGUTH CONGKESS 271 

title had been extinguished — the Oklahoma portion of 
the Indian Territory. This tract had been acquired 
by the Government from the Creeks when it was the 
intention to move all the Indians of the country into 
one body. This idea had been abandoned, and tlte lands 
were unoccupied. " The time has come," said he, " to 
commence the process of settling up the Indian Terri- 
tory, and thereby settling that branch of the Indian 
problem." He called attention to the fact that he had 
himself introduced a bill at the previous session of 
Congress opening to settlement the country known as 
Oklahoma. This bill had not passed, but it had served 
the purpose of notice of what the Indians might expect 
in the very near future. 

At this session the matter of a pension for the widow 
of General George H. Thomas was considered. It was 
a special bill, for under the general laws she was not 
entitled to a pension. Senator Plumb had always op- 
posed the granting of pensions to widows who were 
already rich unless it could be done under existing law 
and without a special bill. In this instance he was 
willing to make an exception, saying: 

I think there was no more meritorious soldier who wore the 
blue than General Thomas, no one who was more entitled to 
the gratitude of the nation than he, and no one who, in my 
opinion, was more ignored during his lifetime when the oppor- 
tunities presented themselves for his promotion, than General 
Thomas. 

There are few bills which caused more discussion 
than the appropriation bills for the District of Co- 
lumbia. There has always been a feeling that in the 
District there was a dependence on the Government for 
more than it should pay, and that for that reason the 
city was extravagant and careless in expenditures. 
Sometimes these appropriation bills have occupied 
weeks of the Senate's time. The influence of Plumb 



272 THE LIFE OF PBESTON B. PLUMB 

was never better shown than in his management of the 
District Bill. On the morning of the 8th of February 
he demanded its consideration. It was a House Bill 
and had been amended at many points by the Senate 
( lommittee on Appropriations. Plumb stood at his desk 
for hours explaining the bill and its amendments. He 
submitted interminable statistics and tabular state- 
ments. He did not take his seat until the bill was 
passed, which was at an early hour, and the Record 
shows that much other business was transacted later 
on the same day. 

It was the opinion of Senator Plumb in 1S85 that 
it would soon be necessary for Congress to legislate on 
the subject of labor in its relation to capital. In op- 
posing the importation of foreign labor under contract, 
he said: 

We are on the threshold of not only legislation, but of the 
formation of public opinion perhaps preceding such legislation 
in regard to the very intricate relations between labor and capi- 
tal ; and it is proper, I think, that in the beginning of this 
controversy, and as the first step toward the settlement of the 
question, we should inhibit the importation of labor under con- 
tract. 

There was not a session of Congress when Plumb 
did not find cause to attack and oppose the River and 
Harbor Bill. This was not because he did not believe 
in the improvements contemplated in the bills, ne 
very much desired the permanent improvement of the 
harbors and navigable streams of the country. In the 
transportation by water he saw the solution of many 
problems vexing both foreign and domestic trade. But 
in his opinion the policy then pursued by the Govern- 
ment would not produce deep harbors and navigable 
rivers. He attacked the bill brought in at this session 
on the ground that the money proposed to be spent 
would produce no permanent results whatever. The 
main difficulty was in the failure to determine what it 



THE FORTY-EIGHTH CONGRESS 273 

was necessary to do on any particular harbor or river, 
and then go at the work there and complete it so it 
would be out of the way and the stream or port 
permanently opened to commerce. The plan in use 
gave some money toward a work with the expectation 
of giving more to it every year — just enough to keep 
someone forever pottering along without doing anything 
worth while. He cited instances where work had been 
under wav continuouslv for twentv vears without a 
particle of progress toward its completion. He men- 
tioned one case of flagrant misuse of funds which had 
come under his own observation. An appropriation 
of $300,000 for the improvement of a certain location 
on the Mississippi River had been wholly expended for 
boats, snag-pullers, scows and other equipment. There 
was not a dollar left to be devoted to the work for which 
the money was appropriated, and the machinery pur- 
chased lay rotting and rusting in the river, while the 
" engineer " waited for another appropriation. Most of 
the money carried by these bills was worse than wasted. 
If some system could be devised whereby the money 
spent would accomplish lasting good he would favor a 
continuance of the appropriations ; otherwise he should 
oppose them. 



CHAPTER XLV 

BLAINE 

Kansas was a Blaine State as long as the " Plumed 
Knight" was a factor in national politics. In 1876 
Kansas voted for his nomination, and in 18S0 most of 
the Kansas delegates voted for him as against General 
Grant. While the sentiment in Kansas was unchanged 
in 1884, there were conditions which caused many to 
doubt the wisdom of giving Blaine the nomination for 
President. Ex-Governor St. John was regarded as the 
apostle of prohibition. Although he had suffered de- 
feat in Kansas, the prohibitory laws were in favor 
there, and he was strong with the churches and temper- 
ance organizations. He had been mentioned as the 
probable nominee of the Prohibition party for Presi- 
dent. After his defeat some of the leaders of the 
Republican party in Kansas believed him politically 
dead. Plumb was of a different opinion. He saw that 
prohibition was a permanent policy of Kansas, and de- 
sired that St. John be sent by the Republican party 
as a delegate to the national convention. So many 
opposed this that Plumb did not insist on it, but he 
warned one and all that prohibition had come to stay in 
Kansas, and that opposition to it or its advocates was 
unwise. St. John did not wish to be a delegate, but 
he did wish to have the convention take a friendly view 
of the movement he had so earnestly favored. He be- 
lieved this course would strengthen the Republican 
party. He did not expect an endorsement of prohibi- 

274 



BLAINE -7.-, 

tion, but lie hoped for a general expression favoring 
temperance. 

Another thing which Senator Plumb found himself 
at variance with was the Blaine sentiment. lie wns 
anxious that his party should not lose the election, and 
he was not convinced that Blaine was the strongest 
man it could put forward. President Arthur was a 
candidate. His administration had overcome the dif- 
ficulties under which it assumed control of the Gov- 
ernment and had won the confidence of the country. 
"While Senator Plumb admired Blaine and was on very 
friendly terms with him, he believed it better for the 
party that President Arthur be nominated. He had 
said to his friends in Kansas that he did not wish to 
be a delegate. He knew the extent and force of the 
devotion in the State to Blaine and did not wish to 
oppose it. His duty, as it appeared to him, however, 
became every day more plain. 

A few days before the State convention assembled 
at Topeka, Plumb dispatched a messenger to Kansas 
to say he had decided that he must go as a delegate to 
Chicago, and that it was his judgment that no instruc- 
tions should be given the delegates. But when the con- 
vention was called on for an expression of its 
preference for candidates, Blaine received 202 votes 
out of a total of 280 present. Logan had 48, and Presi- 
dent Arthur had but 6. Notwithstanding this vote, 
the enthusiasm for Blaine, and the known position of 
Plumb, he received 250 votes on the first ballot for dele- 
gates-at-large and was placed at the head of the dele- 
gation. 

At Chicago it was found impossible to prevent the 
nomination of Blaine, but Senator Plumb delivered a 
part of the Kansas delegation to President Arthur. 
Kansas had been largely settled by veterans of the Union 
Armies. They admired General John A. Logan. It was 
deemed necessary to have a former soldier on the 



276 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

national ticket, and the Kansans were for General 
Logan. Senator Plumb placed him in nomination for 
Vice-President and he was nominated. 1 

St. John attended the convention. Miss Frances 
Willard had secured through the Woman's Christian 
Temperance Union two hundred thousand names to a 
petition asking the convention to take an attitude fa- 
vorable to the temperance cause. She presented the peti- 
tion to the proper committee, and in doing so made an 
appeal for the homes and for the young people of 
America. She was respectfully heard and politely 
bowed out, and was succeeded by a delegation of distill- 
ers and brewers. The committee exhibited the petition 
left by Miss Willard, and in a spirit of levity asked 
what should be done with it. The brewers replied that 
it might as well be kicked under the table, and that 
disposition was made of it. When the convention ad- 
journed it was found on the floor where it had been 
trampled under foot and spat upon. When she heard 
this Miss Willard urged St. John to accept the nomina- 



i The newspapers said Senator Plumb was one of the few speakers 
in the convention who could be heard by all. His voice reached 
••very part of the hall. As Plumb left his seat on the floor to take 
the platform B. F. Simpson, who was with the Kansas delegation, 
saiil to him, " Plumb, don't bob your head too much in that speech," a 
pleasantry referring to the Senator's habit of unconsciously tossing 
up his head. It was always claimed in Kansas that Logan's nomina- 
tion was the result of the action of the Kansas delegation, which is 
well described in the following quotation written from an account 
which appeared in the Topeka Commonwealth. 

THE BLACK EAGLE AND THE KANSAS BOOSTER 

The ToprJca Commonwealth says that the nomination of Logan was 
entirely a Kansas affair. The idea had not been broached at all till 
it was started in our delegation. Hon. Cy Leland went around to 
fhe chairman of as many delegations as he could reach and said, 
" Plumb is going to nominate Logan ; we want you to second the 
nomination." In this way he got fifteen delegates to agree to make 
speeches, each one supposing that his was the only one to he made. 
This lied those States to Logan and forbade them bringing out or 
agreeing to support any other candidate. 



BLAINE . 277 

tion of the Prohibition party, which he did. lie made 
a vigorous campaign and received many thousand more 
votes in New York than would have elected Blaine. 
Thus, the very thing which Senator Plumb had fore- 
seen and endeavored to forestall had come to pass. 

In the campaign of 18S4 Senator Plumb was very 
active. Blaine was in daily communication with him. 
He made speeches in many parts of the United States. 
It was his opinion that the election was won for Blaine, 
but lost by him when he foolishly stopped in New York 
City. And he was convinced that many fraudulent 
votes were cast against Blaine in New York. 



CHAPTER XLVI 

FORTY-NINTH CONGRESS 

The change of the Presidency from the Republican 
to the Democratic party carried with it many changes 
of public policy and brought forward many political 
questions, the most important of which was that of the 
civil service. President Cleveland administered the 
Pendleton Act in good faith and extended its provisions 
to many branches of the Government. The pressure 
on him for office was great, and he was sometimes ac- 
cused of violating the civil service laws. His first mes- , 
sage dealt with this question at length; and it also 
urged a reduction of the tariff. Vice-President Hen- 
dricks died at Indianapolis, November 2#, 1885. This 
emphasized the necessity of fixing the Presidential suc- 
cession, and the law for that purpose is the only one 
of importance enacted by the first session of this Con- 
gress. John Sherman was elected President of the 
Senate, that body being Republican. The House Avas 
Democratic, and John G. Carlisle was elected Speaker. 

When the President removed an office-holder and sent 
the nomination of a successor to the Senate, it demanded 
a reason for the removal and requested that all the 
papers in the case be sent in, which was refused by the 
President. When convinced that his nominations 
would not be acted on by the Senate, he withdrew them 
and sen! them in again as new nominations to the same 
offices. In this contest with the Senate the advantage 
remained with the President. 

The Special Session of the Senate to confirm the ap- 

278 



FORTY-NINTH CONGRESS 279 

pointments of President Cleveland was called for the 
4th of March, 1885, by the Proclamation of President 
Arthur. No general business of importance was trans- 
acted. 

FIRST SESSION. 

The first session of the Forty-ninth Congress began 
on the 7th of December, 1885. The admission of South 
Dakota was the first matter of consequence to be consid- 
ered. The Democrats contended that Dakota should 
come in as one State — not two. The political feature 
involved was the number of Senators. As most of the 
people there were from the North the Republican party 
had a majority in the Territory and in both the States 
proposed to be established. It was but natural that the 
Democratic party should oppose the formation of two 
States, as that would increase the Republican majority 
in the Senate. Senator Vest, of Missouri, insisted that 
the action of the people in forming a State constitution 
for the south part of the Territory was revolutionary. 
Senator Plumb recalled that Kansas Territory had ex- 
tended to the summit of the Rocky Mountains, but that 
the convention which formed the constitution had re- 
duced the area to be included in the State by cutting 
off about half the present State of Colorado, retaining 
a tract only four hundred by two hundred miles in 
extent. This was not considered revolutionary at the 
time, though it was done near the beginning of the Civil 
War. 

It was at this session of Congress that Senator Plumb 
began his opposition to the diplomatic service, as it was 
then constituted. The idea and plan of it had been 
taken from the service as developed in European coun- 
tries, and Plumb said it did not conform to the require- 
ments of American democracy. It was purely orna- 
mental and social in its nature and never yielded a dol- 
lar in results. It produced in those given a position 



280 THE LIFE OF PKESTON B. PLUMB 

in it a feeling entirely un-American, and a great many 
of them spent much of their time in the abuse and 
ridicule of the Government of the United States in the 
hope that thereby their social prestige would be in- 
creased in foreign lands. A service which fostered so 
base a course should be abandoned. The efforts of the 
Government should be directed along commercial lines, 
and for the consular service Plumb had high regard. 

In February, 188G, the Senate considered the pro- 
priety of appropriating $250,000 with which a monu- 
ment to General Grant should be erected. Senator 
Plumb opposed the measure, saying that General Grant, 
if alive to speak for himself, would not suffer it to be 
done. The fame of the great must rest on their deeds 
and actions and relations to fellow-men — not on stone 
or bronze monuments. Mr. Lincoln was a greater man 
than Grant, but no monument seemed necessary to 
perpetuate his fame and no movement for one had been 
made : 

The widows of the men whom General Grant commanded, 
of the men who made the victories of Donelson and Yickshurg 
and Missionary Pudge and the Wilderness and Appomattox pos- 
sible, scattered all over this broad land, in the busy haunts of 
men, on homesteads, on the remote frontier, are among the 
people whom the Government of the United States owes money 
to and which it doles out with a scanty hand; little pensions of 
$8 a month to the widows of private soldiers whose necessities 
were just as great as the widows of President or generals of the 
Army. We cannot pause in the exercise of our ordinary duties 
here to do the graceful and honorable and the just and the legal 
thing for them; hut if there is any proposition to vote a pen- 
sion to somehody who does not need it, or to build a monument 
which is not necessary as the expression of the national regard, 
then we can stop and drop our Calendar and take this up to 
the exclusion of everything else. 

A.8 I said, the bill will pass. I have no doubt hut it will. It 
will become a law. I want simply to record my protest against it, 
as one who, I think, cherishes just as much the memory of 
General Granl as a soldier, as a statesman, and above all, as a 
man, as any person on this floor or elsewhere; and I say that 



FORTY-NINTH CONGBESS 281 

the feeling which I have, and which will descend through my 
blood as it will descend through the blood of all the American 
people through all coming time, will find no fitting expression 
in any monument erected by statute here or elsewhere. General 
Grant's memory is in the hearts of the American people. 

In his speech on the Post-Office Appropriation Bill, 
April 28, 1SS6, Senator Plumb reviewed the feeling 
which existed against Great Britain in both the North 
and the South at the close of the Civil War. Both sec- 
tions of the Union desired a war. This would have 
come but for the troubles of reconstruction. When 
Grant became President this feeling revived and w T ar 
was demanded, some favoring the Alabama depredation 
claims as a cause. Of Grant's action Plumb said, " I 
say now what I have said over and over again elsewhere, 
that I think it w T as General Grant's greatest title to 
fame that he, a soldier, opposed the war feeling, and 
said in substance, ' No, we will have no war until we 
have exhausted every effort for peace. There has been 
enough war in this generation.' The Alabama commis- 
sion followed, and war was averted." 

The true relation of Congress to the people was never 
more clearly expressed than by Senator Plumb on the 
23d of February, 1SS6, when he complained of the action 
of the House, and said : 

It is so thoroughly understood that speeches made here do 
not convince those to whom they are nominally addressed that 
1 take it that it is universally understood equally that they are 
made for the outside public. I do not think there is any other 
single thing which so thoroughly illustrates the popular char- 
acter of this body, and of the House of Bepresentatives, as this 
fact equally applicable to both bodies. This is a public assize, 
and the legislation which we adopt is perhaps as nearly related 
to an honest, conservative, and permanent public opinion as 
though it were adopted by a mass convention of all the people 
of the United States assembled for the purpose, and having time 
enough and opportunity to fairly discuss the propositions that 
might be submitted. 



282 THE LIFE OF PliESTON B. PLUMB 

On the 281 li of April, 1886, Plumb urged an appropria- 
tion for carrying the foreign mails on American steam- 
ships. The Committee on Appropriations had formu- 
lated the amendment authorizing the expenditure of the 
money necessary for that purpose, and Plumb was in 
charge of the bill. He insisted that it would be some in- 
centive to American ship-building. This would be some 
compensation for the loss of money sustained by refusing 
to contract with owners of foreign ships for less money 
than Americans could perform the service for with their 
present equipment. He said the growth of our coun- 
try had reached that stage when we must look outward 
and not inward for large enterprises and great business 
opportunities — that we must take to the sea and cover 
it with our shipping and our flag. On the 4th of May 
he delivered another speech on the subject * in which he 
said the measure would develop the ship-building in- 
dustry, and regretted that he heard no voice from the 
South in favor of the amendment, for that section was 
to benefit more by trade with South America than any 
other part of the country. He deplored the fact that 
he heard favor expressed for Birmingham, England, and 
none for Birmingham, Alabama. He ascribed this, in 
some measure, to conditions growing out of the attitude 
of the South on the labor question before the Civil War, 
something of which still remained. 

The bill for the relief of Fitz-John Porter came up in 
the latter part of this session. Plumb opposed the bill. 
On the 25th of June, 1880, he entered actively into the 
debate on the subject, and his speech is a very strong 
one. 2 It was his judgment that Porter was a traitor; 
thai his act of disobedience was deliberate and malicious; 
that to vindicate him and reinstate him would be a 
rebuke to President Lincoln; that the Southern Sena- 



i Also set out in Appendix to Congressional Record. 
2 Given in Cull in the Congressional Record Appendix. 



FORTY-NINTH CONGRESS L's:; 

tors were for him in order to elevate a traitor above 
President Lincoln and the loyal generals like Sherman 
and Sheridan; that the North took no part in the dis- 
cussion of the merit and positions of honor given to 
Confederate generals, and was indifferent as to whom 
of them were put up or down, that being a matter for 
the South alone. General Hunter was the Chairman 
and presiding officer of the court-martial which tried 
and condemned Porter. President Cleveland had 
vetoed a bill giving his widow a pension of $50 a month, 
though he had approved a number of bills allowing 
widows of officers $50 a month. Senator Plumb saw 
in these things a concerted plan to dishonor the mem- 
bers of the court-martial and President Lincoln. Most 
of the Republican Senators opposed the bill. All but 
two of the court-martial were dead, and it was the opin- 
ion of Plumb that at that late day it was impossible 
to do justice to Porter by a new trial. It was wrong- 
to make a political matter of the effort to vindicate 
him. The court-martial had lacked but one vote of con- 
demning Porter to death, a thing they never would 
have done had not his guilt been established beyond any 
doubt. There were some sharp and angry retorts es- 
pecially from Voorhees, of Indiana, and Butler, of South 
Carolina, but Plumb was not disconcerted by them and 
he gave as good as he got. Porter was restored to the 
army. 

SECOND SESSION. 

This was the regular short session, and the debates 
were uniformly brief and to the point. For downright 
hard work and attention to business it would be diffi- 
cult to name a session the equal of this one. The most 
important measure passed was the Inter-State Com- 
merce law. The Electoral-count law was passed, the 
trade dollar was taken from circulation. The Presi- 
dent vetoed a dependent pension bill granting $12 a 



284 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

month to honorably discharged Union soldiers who had 
served ninety days in the Civil War. He also vetoed 
many other pension bills, and he allowed the Anti- 
Polygamy Bill to become a law without his approval. 
The Morrison Tariff Bill was again offered, but the 
Republicans and protectionist Democrats prevented its 
consideration. The session began on the 8th of De- 
cember, 1886. The House Bill for the Coast and 
Geodetic Survey raised the old question as to whether 
the Senate was the more extravagant of the two bodies 
of Congress. On many occasions and nearly all ac- 
counts the appropriations of the House had to be in 
creased by the Senate. When the bodies were of 
different politics this matter became an important issue 
A Democratic House could call attention to the increases 
made by a Republican Senate and cry extravagance, 
though it had purposely appropriated sums inadequate 
to meet the needs of the Government. Plumb believed 
the appropriation bill for the Coast Survey an instance 
of this kind, and he favored leaving it as the House 
had passed it in order that it might be demonstrated 
that the House was wrong. It was a matter which 
could never be settled by argument. " With the House 
pinching appropriations," he said, " and the Senate 
crowding them on the nouse, and the nouse yielding, 
of course — I have no doubt with a leer, as they think 
how agreeable the Senate is in insisting on giving them 
more than they want — we shall never arrive at any 
conclusion except the one conclusion which the House 
lias already formed, that it is economical while the 
Senate is extravagant. " 

The Kansas Legislature of 1887 passed a concurrent 
resolution requesting the Kansas representatives in 
Congress to use every effort to secure the organization 
of the Territory of Oklahoma. The Indian tribes from 
which the Oklahoma country was secured retained an 
i ni i Test in the land, or at least the right to say that 



FOKTY-NINTII CONGRESS 285 

it should not be used for any other purpose than that 
for which it had been ceded. It was necessary that 
their consent should be obtained to the movement open- 
ing the country to white settlement. Senator Plumb 
urged that this consent be secured as quickly as possible, 
and the memorial was referred to the Committee on 
Indian Affairs. There was not time at the short session 
for any action either of the tribes or Congress. Sen- 
ator Plumb favored opening up that country to settle- 
ment, and had repeatedly urged Congressional action 
prior to this action of the Kansas Legislature. 

In the early part of 1887 the decadence of the postal- 
service came to be an issue in Congress. The new ad- 
ministration of the Post-Office Department was accused 
of incompetency. There were complaints from all 
parts of the West. It was said to require four days to 
get a newspaper one hundred miles by the railway postal- 
service in Kansas. Many experienced men had been 
dismissed and their places filled by men who had to 
learn their duties by doing work of which they had no 
previous knowledge. A condition something akin to 
chaos resulted. Senator Plumb was appealed to by in- 
dividuals, by communities, by towns and cities, and 
protests and remonstrances poured in on him, which 
found their way into the Congressional Record. The 
administration insisted that unfair politics stood back 
of all the charges. These complaints were accompanied 
by proofs that mail accumulated at Kansas City several 
days before being distributed and forwarded ; and that 
of the 1300 miles of new railroad built in Kansas in 
1886, postal-service had been provided for but about 
800 miles. The mail was carried from Newton to Mc- 
Pherson (Kansas), towns of about 5000 population, 
every day on a " backboard," although a railroad had 
been completed between the towns for more than three 
months. The people looked to Senator Plumb to secure 
a remedy. It was through his efforts that service had 



2S6 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

been originally established over most of the State and 
mueh of the West. lie worked on this matter faith- 
fully and with his usual energy, but it was some months 
before good service was restored. 

In this session Plumb did not have the time to engage 
in the debates of the Senate to that extent which he 
wished. The routine work was very heavy and much 
of it fell on him. 



CHAPTER XLVII 

RAILROAD PASSES 

The Inter-State Commerce Bill was under considera- 
tion much of the first session of the Forty-ninth Con- 
gress. Senator Plumb had long favored such a bill 
and was one of the first men in public life to call atten- 
tion to the necessity for it. On the 5th of May, 1886, 
he offered an amendment prohibiting railroads from 
issuing passes or furnishing free transportation of any 
kind or on any pretext to any member of Congress or 
employee of the Government, or to any other person 
whomsoever. So far as found, this was the original 
movement against free railroad transportation. This 
is the amendment : 

That it shall not be lawful for any railroad company, or for 
any manager, officer or employee of any such company to issue 
or deliver to any member of Congress, or to any officer or em- 
ployee of the Government, or to any persons at the request or 
on behalf of such member of Congress or employee, or to any 
member of the family of such member of Congress, or officer or 
emplo3 r ee, any pass, check, or other instrument entitling the 
person to whom issued, or to any other person whomsoever, to 
ride over any such railroad, or any part thereof, free or for rate 
or charge less than that required to be paid by the general 
public; and it shall likewise be unlawful for any member of 
Congress, or for any officer or employee of the Government, to 
apply for or receive, for himself or for another, or to use, any 
such pass, check, or other instrument, or in any way to travel 
over any such railroad, or any part thereof, at or for anv rate 
or charge lower than that charged to the general public; and 
any person who violates any of the foregoing provisions shall be 
subject to imprisonment not exceeding six months, or a fine of 

2S7 



2SS THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

not less than $500, or both such imprisonment and fine, in the 
discretion of the Court. 

The amendment failed, but it has since been rec- 
ognized as a true principle in the operation of public 
service corporations, and as a remedy for many evils 
affecting the railroads, the Government, and the people. 
Senator Plumb for many years had refused to accept 
passes from railroads, preferring to pay his way and 
feel that he was independent and under obligations to 
no one. 



CHAPTER XLVIII 

DIPLOMATIC SERVICE 

Plumb was a good example of the high-minded, in- 
dependent, self-respecting American. Despising sham 
and toadyism in private life, he conld not countenance 
them in public life. He had little patience with the 
hollow mockery and senseless conventionality of 
" society." The duties and functions of the diplomatic 
service rest largely on these. As Plumb was unable 
to see in it any element of dignity or use to Americans 
he opposed it. At the first session of the Forty-ninth 
Congress he deemed it his duty to make a public declara- 
tion on the subject. 

A Mr. Keiley had been appointed minister to Italy. 
Having married a Jewess, and it being of course neces- 
sary that his wife be a resident with him at Rome, the 
Italian Government found that, because of the social 
usages and religious prejudices of that country, he 
could not be received. He was then appointed minister 
to Austria, but as Vienna society would no more 
countenance a Jewess than would that of Rome, he was 
not acceptable there. The whole matter came back to 
the Senate, where it brought out a review of our foreign 
relations and was a matter of considerable debate. 
Plumb ridiculed our whole scheme of foreign repre- 
sentation, saying that it ought to be along commercial 
lines, and not social in its nature. With keen satire 
he held up to scorn our conception and practice of 
diplomacy. He was glad the question had arisen, not 
because a good man had been deprived of a good salary, 

289 



290 THE LIFE OF PliESTON B. PLUMB 

but that the attention of the country had been called 
to the fact that a large sum of money was annually 
spent to maintain a service which is purely ornamental. 
He could not say, on close construction, that it was 
even ornamental : 

If what I have heard about the attire of the people whom 
we send abroad, and their general performance at the various 
capitals to which they are accredited, be true, then to my " un- 
tutored vision," I should think they were not even ornamental; 
certainly they would not be edifying west of the Mississippi 
River. ... In plain English, Mr. Keiley was appointed to per- 
form some social duties about the court of Vienna, and he could 
not do these unless the Austrian Emperor should receive him 
at the "drawing rooms" at which the nobility and others of 
social standing are received, because the people who have the 
social standing would not associate with Mr. Keiley. This 
seems, of course, a little bit harsh in this country, where there 
is no social distinction of the kind set up — except at one hotel, 
I believe, at Saratoga. I think there is perhaps at Saratoga a 
hotel where a social distinction of this kind is recognized ; but as 
a general rule it is not recognized, and it seems a little hard 
generally. I am told, too, that some gentlemen who have come 
over on this side in an official capacity, with domestic relations 
which were not of a kind that were in vogue anywhere in this 
country, except possibly in a limited area in Salt Lake Valley, 
have felt a little bit put out that we do not think well of those 
social relations; and there have been some intimations, I have 
understood, at times rather plain, that persons who came in 
that way could not be expected to participate, very extensively 
at any rate, in the social ordinances of Washington. ... So 
when the Committee on Foreign Relations come to consider this 
question, as 1 hope they will, I trust they will give careful con- 
sideration to the question whether we need any minister at the 
Austrian court or not. I hope it will find that this whole diplo- 
matic service, which costs us a great deal of money, is an anti- 
quated and totally unnecessary appendage, and recommend to 
the Senate that it be dispensed with in toto. 

On the 27th of February, 1S87, Plumb further de- 
veloped his views on this subject. American trade with 
foreign countries was at a disadvantage 1 . European 
commerce was supported by European governments. 



DIPLOMATIC SERVICE 291 

The American manufacturer was left to shift for him- 
self. The useless and expensive diplomatic service 
should be abandoned, and the consular or commercial 
service strengthened. If our trade relations with 
foreign countries were kept on a sound basis our diplo- 
matic relations would be satisfactory as a natural con- 
sequence. His plan is explained in his speech: 

Mr. President, I could suggest an improvement. I would 
rather take a commercial drummer than a broken-down politi- 
cian for an Assistant Secretary of State. If there could be 
some man somewhere in the Department possessing authority, 
who had his finger on the daily pulse-beat of American industry, 
of American ambition, of the growth and progress of the Ameri- 
can people, and who could put that into practical shape, Ameri- 
can manufacturers would not be sighing for want of foreign 
markets, because it is not true that American goods on the whole 
are dearer than foreign goods are. 

But when we come into that international domain in which 
nation struggles with nation for supremacy, the American manu- 
facturer is lost, isolated, individualized, while his foreign com- 
petitor has at his back at every step the powerful purpose of his 
Government helping him in that competition in which political 
power goes along with prices. 

The American manufacturer is at a disadvantage, and it is 
because this whole structure, from beginning to end, is built 
upon the wrong plan. It is because this foreign service and 
its concomitant, our foreign trade, has been degraded to the 
level of a deformed civil service which looks to the reward of 
the belated, the unworthy, for political service or for good rid- 
dance. If we could put into this foreign service one-half of the 
energy, of the enterprise, of the intelligent appreciation mani- 
fested by the commercial travelers of America in the promotion 
of the domestic trade of this country, there would be no lack 
of foreign trade for American merchants and American manu- 
facturers. I would be willing to substitute at a hazard the 
humblest member of that fraternity as Assistant Secretary of 
State for any man of that grade who has been in that office 
during the last few years. 

We keep up at great expense the show and the tinsel of what 
we call our diplomatic service, and we print tons and cords of 
what we call our diplomatic correspondence, which relates to 
evervthing that is of no consequence to the .American people 



292 THE LIFE OF FliESTON B. PLUMB 

and does not even enrich its literature, while those things that 
are material to the trade of this country are neglected. 

I would say to-day, if I had my way, abolish the diplomatic 
service and substitute in place of it an enlightened commercial 
service. Let the men who carry the commission of the Govern- 
ment to represent it abroad go backed by the power intelligently 
directed in the way of helping to find and to make markets for 
American products, and the genius of the mechanics and of 
the laboring men of this country, backed by that power, would 
take possession of all the markets in which skill properly applied 
is of any account. 

It is that kind of a foreign service that Great Britain has. 
She has the other kind, too, because of her interest in con- 
tinental politics, and the necessity of finding employment for 
her aristocracy; but she sends the younger sons of her noble 
families, she sends her keen-eyed men of traffic into all the 
world where she desires trade, and she sends them with instruc- 
tions to bring about results, and she arms them with her power. 
She establishes lines of steamship communication with the ports 
at which her consuls are stationed. She backs her manufac- 
turers by subsidies and by helpful devices of every kind for the 
competition they have got to meet, and she says to them, take 
possession at whatever cost, because there will be after profit to 
compensate, if necessary, for first losses. 

Until we have some such service, until the department through 
which we touch all these varied interests — which represents or 
which is supposed to represent our external affairs — is vitalized 
with this same spirit, the individual effort of American manu- 
facturers will be at a minimum as to results. 



CHAPTER XLIX 

FIFTIETH CONGRESS 

The Fiftieth Congress did not accomplish much. Its 
first session was the longest session ever held, beginning 
on the 5th of December, 1887, and continuing until the 
20th of October, 1888. In the Senate there were 30 
Republicans and 37 Democrats. The Democrats had a 
small majority in the House, and Carlisle was Speaker. 
President Cleveland still urged a reduction in the tariff, 
his message in 1887 dealing with no other subject. The 
Mills Bill passed the House, and when it came up in 
the Senate a substitute was made with a bill wholly 
different in purpose and terms, and neither became a 
law. The Canadian Fisheries still remained a vexatious 
question, and the President asked for authority for 
severe retaliatory measures, but this was refused. 
Civil service was extended to various departments and 
branches of the Government. A speculative craze over- 
spread the country. It was confined principally to real 
estate, and its collapse resulted in financial panics. 
The Democratic party renominated President Cleve- 
land, and to oppose him Benjamin Harrison was nom- 
inated by the Republican party. The campaign for the 
Presidency was an exciting one, and Harrison was 
elected. 

FIRST SESSION. 

The pressure for opening the Oklahoma country to 
settlement increased. Congress had directed the Presi- 
dent to negotiate treaties with the tribes retaining an 

293 



291 THE LIFE OP PRESTON B. PLUMB 

interest in the hinds desired for settlement. This he 
refused to do, saying that bodies of men were encamped 
along the border with the intention of taking forcible 
possession of the lands, which rendered it impossible 
to make favorable terms with the Indians. Senator 
Plumb severely arraigned the President for not com- 
plying with the law, and insisted that the bodies of 
people intending to settle in Oklahoma had been dis- 
persed and had not reassembled. 

The alien land law which Senator Plumb had placed 
on the statute book in 1884 stood in the way of the 
exploitation of mines in the United States by foreigners. 
At this session there was an unsuccessful attempt to 
modify it. In defending it Plumb touched another mat- 
ter. Rather than extend privileges to foreigners he 
would restrict some of those enjoyed by American citi- 
zens, and said: 

I am not, and have not been for many years, one of those 
who look with great favor upon projects for the immediate 
development of all our resources of public domain. I am en- 
tirely willing, so far as I am concerned, to leave some portions 
of it undeveloped for the succeeding generation. I would he 
glad if the population of the United States had spread itself 
less widely over the public domain, and that there were more of 
it left to be handed over to the succeeding generation. I can 
conceive that in the race of personal interest, in the desire to 
reap everything that is in sight or everything that can be brought 
into sight, we are, to some extent, discounting the future. 

In 1888 the service pension bill was before Congress. 
It was favored by the Republicans and opposed by the 
Democrats. On the 29th of February Plumb spoke in 
the Senate in favor of it. Ue paid a fine tribute to 
(be Union Army: 

It was the law of the Roman Republic thai neither the legions 
nor tbose who commanded tbem, either in war or in defense 
or conquest, should come back as soldiers to within the limits 



FIFTIETH CONGKESS 295 

of the Republic. Before returning, the legions were required 
to be disbanded and the commanders to resign their commis- 
sions. They could only return without arms and as citizen-. 
Caesar himself, returning with his conquering legions from the 
conquest of Gaul, was no exception, so jealous was the Republic 
of its defenders and of those who had extended its borders by 
conquest. None of them was permitted to cross the Rubicon. 
And so it happened, thinking of the Roman precedent, perhaps, 
and of the two millions of men under arms for the defense of 
the Union, that many believed the time would come when those 
men would not submit to be disbanded, and that, realizing their 
power, they would make use of it to the detriment of the 
Republic. 

But when the war was over the great armies that had carried 
the flag of the Union to victory were invited to come to this 
capital, and here assembled the armies of Grant and Sherman, 
fresh from the battles they had won, with ranks filled, and under 
their chosen and beloved, commanders. They assembled here, 
and joining forces marched down Pennsylvania Avenue, with 
banners flying, with musket and saber and artillery all in their 
accustomed place — the greatest parade of modern times and 
the largest assemblage of troops this continent has ever seen. 
Was the Republic endangered by the presence of this vast array 
of seasoned veterans in its capital? On the contrary, it was 
never safer from enemy, both without and within, than it was 
at that supreme moment. Not a thought in all that great army 
of anything that was personal to themselves, not a suggestion 
or hint that they intended to use their power against the 
Republic, not even a suggestion that they wanted anything which 
the Republic could give. They did not ask largess nor bounty ; 
they carried the Republic on the point of their bayonets ; they 
had put down the greatest rebellion known in history, had 
restored the Union and the supremacy of the law. If at this 
juncture they had said : " We want pensions to the full extent 
of the country to pay; we want the lands of the Government 
and a mortgage of all its resources to the end of time for our- 
selves and those who may come after us," Congress would have 
yielded without a word, and it would have been justified by 
public sentiment. 

But they had one ambition, and one only. In that supreme 
moment of triumph their only thought was of home and family 
and friends, and they asked only the privilege of being mustered 
out and paid the little remaining sum due them of the $16 a 
month they had been promised, and to stack their arms and go 
home. That great army in the pride and plenitude of its 



296 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

power, the greatest army, I believe, that ever assembled in any 
country in the world, dissolved, its members going back to the 
localities from which they had come into the ranks as citizens. 
The last act was greater than any which, had preceded it, and 
constitutes a greater claim upon the country, and should be a 
matter of greater pride than all the battles it had fought. By 
it they showed that, great as they had been as soldiers, they had 
never forgotten that they were citizens. 

They went back to the places from which they had severally 
come. There was no disorder where they went. On the con- 
trary, their presence became the sign of order. As was said of 
Cromwell's soldiers, they could be told because they were the 
most industrious, the most law-abiding, the best citizens. Since 
they were discharged they have performed great services to the 
Republic. Their army service had widened their horizon and 
made them more ambitious. They realized fully while in the 
service the power they had. When they went back to their 
places from which they had come the surroundings were narrow 
by comparison. They wanted more room and verge; and so they 
took wife and children and went West. And then it happened 
that succeeding and as a result of the war there was the greatest 
hegira of modern times. The Union soldier was seeking for a 
home west of the Mississippi. He found it on the prairies of 
Kansas and Nebraska, in Dakota, in the mines, in the wide 
reaches of Colorado. He has peopled new States, created new 
Territories, wiped a desert off the map, and developed the re- 
sources of a new country with a completeness and rapidity of 
which before we had no experience. 

The Union soldiers have done more. They have gone beyond 
the limits of the country into foreign lands. General Grant 
told me in the last conversation I had with him, not many 
months before he was stricken with that malady which cul- 
minated in his death, that he had rare pride in the fact that 
the Americans whom he had met abroad, and who were the best 
examples of self-reliance, manhood, and energy, were chiefly men 
who had served in the Union Army. 

I was reading the other day the book of General Wilson upon 
China, in which he mentions the fact that a man who was a 
private soldier in the New York Cavalry is to-day the private 
secretary and confidential adviser of the man who, more than 
any other man, wields the destinies of that empire of 500,000,000 
people. The Union soldier, armed with those qualities which 
were begotten as the result of his army service, is strengthening 
the Republic at home and abroad, and his influence will increase 
and widen with the lapse of time. 



FIFTIETH CONGRESS 297 

Senator Vest opposed the bill. He had been a mem- 
ber of the Confederate Congress and took that occasion 
to say something for the Confederate soldier, and taunt 
the Republican Senators. lie said that nearly fifty 
per cent, of all the men enrolled in the Federal Army 
were applicants for pensions: 

Such mortality and such military execution have never been 
known in the whole world. The Confederates were not properly 
equipped. We deprecated the quality of our powder; our sol- 
diers were half-clothed, and half-armed, and half-fed ; yet accord- 
ing to this report, making due allowance for the effects of 
climate and disease, every Confederate soldier disabled three of 
his adversaries. There has been no such destruction in military 
annals since the children of Israel marched through the wilder- 
ness and destroyed whole nations in a single day. Talk of 
marksmanship ! Why, sir, we have read in the Arabian 
Nights of that Persian prince to whom a genius gave an arrow 
which went to its mark across whole continents, through moun- 
tains, over rivers, disposing space in its flight. The arrow in 
the Arabian Nights was nothing to the bullet of the Con- 
federate soldier. It must have hit two or more at one time 
and struck where it was not aimed. It produced strange and 
subtle diseases, which lie dormant for twenty-live years in the 
system, and then suddenly break forth under the effect of some 
new pension law. 

While some referred to what he had said, Plumb was 
the only Senator to retort on the Missourian. Pen- 
sioners of the Mexican War were particularly numerous 
in Missouri. Plumb said: 

There are more soldiers of the Mexican War, in proportion 
to the entire number enlisted, upon the pension-rolls to-day than 
there are in the Union Army in proportion to the number en- 
listed in that army. It is now nearly forty years since the 
Mexican War closed. The total number of persons enlisted in 
the United States army for service in Mexico was less than 
40,000 ; not half that number ever crossed the border of Mexico, 
and nearly 10,000 of those are now borne on the pension-roll, 
notwithstanding the lapse of forty years from the time their 
service was rendered. So the Senator's commendation of the 



298 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

great prowess and skill of the Confederate army would have to 
be increased very much in order to meet the case of the soldiers 
of the Mexican War. 

South Dakota knocked again for admission. It was 
to be the State of Dakota, and what is now North Da- 
kota was to be the Territory of Lincoln. The Southern 
Senators again opposed her admission. Senator Mor- 
gan, of Alabama, was active in his proposition. Senator 
Vest had objected to the prospect of having to associate 
with the class of men who would come in as Senators 
from Dakota. Plumb took up, for examination, the 
objections of these two Senators, and said: 

When I came to the State of my genial friend with whom I 
have served in committee so long, and of whom I am person- 
ally very fond, the Senator from Alabama (Mr. Morgan), and 
for the purpose of showing that my friend from Missouri is a 
little over-sensitive about the admission of Dakota, I called his 
attention to the exhibit of taxable property returned by the 
auditor of state of the State of Alabama, for the year 1880, I 
find in the first column, as is perhaps proper, the first thing to 
be enumerated, the value of "guns, pistols, and dirks" subject 
to taxation. The counties of the State are put down in alpha- 
betical order, the first one being Autauga, and the value of guns, 
pistols and dirks assessed in that county in 1880 was $1,452. 

Running along over the various other items subjected to taxa- 
tion in that county, an agricultural county, I come to the item of 
" farming tools," and I find that that county, which had $4,452 
worth of guns, pistols and dirks for taxation in 1880, only had 
$580 worth of farming tools. This proportion of about 8 to 1 
in favor of the guns, pistols and dirks is very nearly maintained 
throughout the State. 

Going further down I find in the county of Dallas that there 
were $13,066 worth of guns, pistols and dirks assessed for taxa- 
tion, and in the same county $2,751 of farming tools; and in 
not a single one in the State is the proportion more favorable — 
the guns, pistols and dirks always being of greater value than 
the farming tools. The total guns, pistols and dirks subject to 
taxation in the entire State is $357,150.75, while the total of 
farming fools is only $77,206.05. 

When I look at the item of mechanical tools, the total value 



FIFTIETH CONGFESS 299 

of all assessed for taxation in the State of Alabama is $223,46 1 
as against $357,150.75 for guns, pistols and dirks. Turning 
back to a preceding table I find the assessed value of libraries in 
the State is $181,949, being the entire value of all books assessed 
for taxation in the State of Alabama, -while guns, pistols, and 
dirks stand at the comfortable total of $357,150.75. It exceeds 
not only the libraries, but the jewelry, plate, and silverware, 
this last item being only $194,419. While all that I can do will 
not reduce this total of guns, pistols and dirks from the appalling 
sum total of $357,150.75. It is not worth while to make the 
comparison in regard to paintings, but I observe paintings are 
assessed at $14,979. The comparison in value of the guns, 
pistols and dirks with the hogs and sheep is equally striking, 
and nearly equally to the disadvantage of the hogs and sheep. 

It was the hope of Senator Flumb to see a Bureau 
of Animal Industry established. On the 3d of May, 
1888, he made a speech in the Senate favoring a measure 
for that purpose. Even at that time the meat packers 
had secured what amounted to control of every branch 
of meat production. The prices paid by the packers 
for cattle had steadily declined for three years. On 
this subject Flumb said: 

The most powerful, the most unscrupulous, combination that 
exists to-day in the United States is the combination of beef 
and pork packers, having their headquarters in Chicago, with 
branch organizations at Kansas City and St. Louis. There is no 
trust or combination, whether it be the oil trust, the sugar trust, 
the copper trust, or a trust of any other name or kind, which 
has had so powerful or so baleful an influence as this combination 
of packers. ... So perfect is the organization and so complete 
its system that it knows in advance not only how many cattle 
will arrive in Chicago each day, but also the names of shippers, 
where shipped from, etc. Every morning an agent of the com- 
bine inspects the cattle in the stock-yards and fixes a price upon 
them, which is the price they must be sold for unless the com- 
bine chooses to make a reduction. There is no competition for 
purchase. None is permitted. No commission man would dare 
break the prices fixed by the combine by bidding over them. 
It would be the last business he would do about the stock-yard. 
Occasionally, when the number of cattle coming in is light, prices 



300 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

are raised a fraction. This stimulates shipments, and before 
the cattle reach Chicago the prices are put back to the old level 
or lower. . . . Their allies, the railroads, have enabled them to 
break down small packers, and also to a great extent local 
butchers in a great radius around Chicago, so that cattle cannot 
be butchered unless they are sent to Chicago. From there they 
are sent in the shape of carcasses back to the localities from 
where they are shipped to be sold at retail. The country is fast 
coming to a condition where it can only eat its breakfast by 
permission of the cattle-ring. It can do so now only by sub- 
mitting to what is practically extortion. Prices to the consumers 
remain as they were when the producer got 25 per cent, more 
than he does now, and meanwhile the number of cattle in the 
country has been proportionally reduced. 

This effort to establish a Bureau resulted in the ap- 
pointment of a select Committee under resolution of 
May 16, 1888, to investigate the transportation and sale 
of meat products in the United States. The Commit- 
tee was, Senator G. G. Vest, Chairman ; Senators P. B. 
Plumb, S. M. Cullom, C. F. Manderson, and Richard 
Coke. The Committee lield sessions at St. Louis, Chi- 
cago, Kansas City, Des Moines, New York, and Wash- 
ington, where they examined as witnesses packers, cat- 
tle-raisers, cattle-shippers, owners of stock-yards, agents 
of transportation companies and lines, exporters, and 
employees of all these. The testimony taken makes a 
book of 615 pages, which was printed at the Government 
Printing Office in 1889. The Committee submitted a re- 
port of 40 pages on May 1, 1S90. This report is in the 
nature of findings based on the evidence secured, and 
il sustained and established every charge made by 
Plumb. It also brought out other and further abuses 
by the packers and others engaged in handling live- 
stock, among them the extortionate charges made against 
shippers for hay and corn furnished by stock-yards corn- 
panies. In urging the appointment of the Committee 
Plumb had scored the city of St. Louis and charged that 
il was largely responsible, by its subserviency and in- 



FIFTIETH CONGRESS 301 

activity, for many of the evils suffered and complained 

of: 

If it had availed itself of its opportunities and had made 
St. Louis an independent market in fact, as it is in name, there 
would have been that competition which would have maintained 
prices at a legitimate level and undoubtedly would have relieved 
us from the complaints which now exist, and would have pre- 
vented the accumulations of this great business in the hands of 
a few persons at Chicago. But St. Louis has been willing to 
play second fiddle. It has abrogated its claim to metropolitan 
functions as a great trade center and has been willing to be the 
echo of the operations of the Chicago market both in regard to 
cattle and regard to grain. This is a very great misfortune. 
The markets of St. Louis are regulated to-day by those of Chi- 
cago, and practically the same persons purchase the meat in 
St. Louis that purchase it in Chicago. The same influences 
control the business of the two places, and it is just as true of 
St. Louis as it is of Chicago that it dare not lift up its voice 
against or do anything to the detriment of the combination that 
controls this great business. 

All of which was fully established by the testimony. 
And the information possessed by Plumb about business 
and the rank and relation of cities to one another was 
never better shown than in these remarks. 

Senator Plumb was in favor of constructing for the 
Congressional Library one of the greatest buildings in 
the world. He was not a member of the Commission hav- 
ing the work in charge, but all the appropriations passed 
through one of his Committees. He frequently found 
it necessary to call attention to a waste of money there, 
as in work on other public buildings. He presented his 
views to the Senate on different occasions; and his re- 
marks had a corrective and far-reaching influence on the 
character of the building as it was finally completed. 
On the 9th of February, 1888, after discussing the ex- 
penditures made on the public building at Wichita, he 
took up those of the Library building. He said the 
Government had simply a naked lot at Wichita, and 



302 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

that a watchman and superintendent were employed 
there, but no man was at work. Senator Hale suggested 
that they were watching the land. Senator Kenna 
thought they might be watching the Republican poli- 
ticians there; and Plumb said that, if so, much more 
clever people than those on the job would have to be em- 
ployed. Then turning to the report on the Library 
building he said it showed that we were getting a large 
amount of the washing of the towels and the hiring of 
coupes, but very little building. No construction had 
been accomplished, but $38,000 had been spent the last 
year. Senator Hale inquired if it had been spent on 
the building. " On the building," Plumb told him, and 
then said that Senator Dawes was seeking to identify it 
by saying that it was where the hole had been dug. He 
then read a list of the expenditures and remarked that 
the items ended in accommodating fractions, supposed in 
some way to identify and verify them. When Senator 
Dawes expressed surprise at the item of $573 for a 
janitor Plumb said, " The Senator from Massachusetts 
is now seeking to introduce some irrelevant matter here 
by inquiring what this man is janitor of. He is jani- 
tor, I suppose, of what the man out at Wichita is watch- 
man of." 

The matter came up again on the 7th of March, when 
Senator Plumb further analyzed the expenditures. A 
draughtsman was put down at $4 and $5 a day, and 
whether that meant $9 a day, or whether the man was 
worth more some days than others, he was unable to 
find out. Another was down for $3 and $4 a day, and 
Plumb surmised that he was better some days than 
others. Still another was designated as getting $125 
and $150 a month, and the Senator had the impression 
that this one had been employed on the evolution plan 
— he got better as he went on. When the disbursing 
(.nicer was reached Senator Hale wanted to know about 
him : 



FIFTIETH CONGRESS 303 

Mr. Plunib. There is a disbursing agent at $2,500 per annum. 

Mr. Hale. What has the disbursing agent to disburse? 

Mr. Plumb. If the Senator had looked at these figures he 
would see that the disbursing agent has been the most laboriously 
occupied of all the persons employed about the building. 

Mr. Hale. In paying those employees ? 

Mr. Plumb. He has disbursed $38,000 during the past year. 
All that has been done over there, it seems, is the disbursement. 

Mr. Hale. For which he has had $2,500. 

Mr. Plumb. That man, in comparison with the other persons 
employed there, ought to have received $10,000. 

Plumb said lie would not work out the whole matter 
at that time. Senator Voorhees was at the head of the 
Building Committee and Plumb said : 

"Whenever the debate shall lag, and whenever my friend from 
Indiana shall have gotten into the good humor for which he is 
proverbial and can bear a little more, I think I will go further 
into this great mine that has been opened up here in regard to 
the construction of this Library building, which is so dear to 
his heart, for which he has labored so many years of his public 
life. 

Senator Voorhees was put on the defensive. He made 
an apologetic reply, saying that Senator Morrill, of 
Vermont, was the father of the Library building idea, 
but that he had labored on the matter eight years, as 
the head of the Library Commission. The subject did 
not again come up until the 2Sth of July. At that time, 
it seems, one Heaton, an artist with a studio in Wash- 
ington, had designed a painting. It was one of those 
works which depend for favor on the good opinion of 
those shown in it. Senators Morrill, Voorhees, Butler, 
and Iloar were accorded good locations. So many were 
included that some bad to appear far back in nooks and 
corners. Plumb proposed to have the building enlarged 
sufficiently to accommodate a canvas of proportions am- 
ple to give each figure a front seat, and ended with a plea 
and a story : 



304 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

The purpose I had in view was to call attention to the fact 
that after all the elaborate preparations that had been made, 
after all the distinguished persons named had given sittings to 
the artist to enable him to properly prepare their counterfeit 
presentments, there was not still canvas to get them all in, and 
it is intimated in the circular (a copy of which Plumb caused 
to be read) that one of the prominent gentlemen who had com- 
municated with this artist could not be inserted. It is true that 
is veiled under a rather thin statement that he wanted a more 
prominent position than he was entitled to, which somewhat 
reminds me of the story of the youngster who was looking at a 
picture of Daniel in the lion's den. His mother called his atten- 
tion to the great danger that the people were in who were in the 
den, and the young man, noticing the lions and that one of them 
was somewhat distant from the perspective scene had all his 
sympathy aroused for the small lion, and he said if he did not 
hurry up he would not get anything to eat. 

To the rugged independence of Plumb such syco- 
phancy was disgusting; but he did not allow it to inter- 
fere with his desire to see the Library building one of the 
finest in America. 



SECOND SESSION. 

The Second session began on the 3d of December, 
1888. The Mills Bill occupied almost all the time of the 
Senate, aside from the appropriation bills. At the 
previous session Plumb had taken a strong stand for 
protection as a principle of tariff legislation. He was 
never anything other than a protectionist; but he saw, 
in many practices followed in forming tariff schedules, 
injustice and a tendency to foster special privileges. 
1 [e knew that no party could long survive the enactment 
of unfair laws affecting duties. In the interest of the 
country and his party he sought to take the tariff en- 
tirely out of politics. On the 22d of January, 1889, he 
introduced his amendment to the Mills Bill providing 
for a Customs Commission. It was unanimously agreed 
to, and the idea there proclaimed, though in some of its 



FIFTIETH CONGRESS 305 

features not entirely original with Plumb, lias held a 
place in the minds of patriotic men to this day, and it 
must eventually prevail. 

The amount of work done by Senator Plumb in the 
Fiftieth Congress was enormous. He drew up and in- 
troduced 254 bills, amendments, and resolutions. Of 
these 46 became laws, and 40 others passed the Senate. 
Five more were vetoed by the President. Those ad- 
versely reported numbered 55. He made 77 reports for 
committees on which he was serving; and he was on 
many committees of conference. From November 20, 
1888, to January 28, 1890, he was compelled to devote 
much time to the work of the Senate Select Committee 
on the Transportation and Sale of Meat Products, and 
was often taken from Washington by its duties. He 
addressed the Senate 140 times, not counting the intro- 
duction of bills and reports or the brief passages in 
general debates. His mail was increasing daily, and 
while its volume for this period can be only estimated, 
it is safe to say that the letters requiring immediate at- 
tention were 150 a day, and it is not improbable that 
they were twice that number. He read each week every 
newspaper published in Kansas (more than 800) and 
the principal metropolitan daily papers of the country. 
Added to this was the work to be done in the Depart- 
ments, and the requirements of his private business, 
at that time large. He took an active part in the cam- 
paign of 1888, and did much for his party at home and 
throughout the country. That any man could do the 
amount of work which fell to the lot of Plumb is al- 
most unbelievable. He not only did it, but did it 
thoroughly and well, and still found time for wide 
general reading. 



CHAPTER L 

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

The Department of Agriculture, as one of the Execu- 
tive Departments of the Government, had its origin in 
the action of the Grange movement which appeared a 
few years after the Civil War. In the early seventies 
lodges of this order, in many parts of the country, passed 
resolutions asking that agriculture have representation 
in the President's Cabinet. In 1876 a body calling it- 
self the National Grange assembled at Chicago. Among 
the resolutions passed by it was one demanding that a 
Department of Agriculture, to be under the direction of 
a Cabinet minister, should be established. 

The Grange was strong in Kansas. From its incep- 
tion Plumb was familiar with its purposes ; and he was 
in full sympathy with the Grange movement. In the 
Senate he often found occasion to champion the coun- 
try's agricultural interests. He urged the correction 
of many disadvantages under which these interests lay, 
never failing to emphasize the fact that the farmer was 
the victim of the tariff schedules. He realized that 
there was a growing necessity for the dissemination of 
knowledge of agriculture, and a scientific application 
of this knowledge by the farmers, the horticulturists, 
and the stock-growers of the country. On the 21st of 
December, 1882, he gave notice in the Senate that he 
would soon move to make the Bureau of Agriculture an 
Executive Department of the Government under the di- 
rection of a Secretary who should be a Cabinet minister. 1 



i Bee Congressional Record. Second session, 47th Congress, pp. 
501-2, December 21, L882. This is the first mention in Congress of this 
matter, by anyone, which lias been found. 

30G 



DEPARTMENT OF AGBICULTUBE 307 

This announcement was not well received by some Sen- 
ators, but Senator George, of Mississippi, said that it 
was pleasing and satisfactory to him. 

In pursuance of the notice given, Senator Plumb, on 
the 13th of January, 1883, introduced his bill. There 
was under consideration the bill to reimburse Ben liol- 
laday for losses alleged to have been sustained by him 
in carrying the mails across the Plains in the Civil War. 
When the bill was read Plumb moved to strike out all 
after the enacting clause and insert as an amendment 
his bill to make the Bureau of Agriculture an Executive 
Department of the Government. lie made a strong 
plea for the bill, saying among other things, that it 
directly affected 30,0(10,000 people of the United States 
— seven-twelfths of the total population. These peo- 
ple had to bear the burdens of the Government, largely, 
such as the creation or refunding of national debts, 
the effects of the kind and volume of currency provided, 
and the tariff schedules. That while other interests sent 
hundreds of representatives to Washington when these 
matters w T ere under consideration, not a man appeared 
to plead for the great agricultural interests of the 
United States. This, he said, was not because of lack 
of interest, but was the result of the lack of facility. 
The farming community could not focus itself suddenly, 
at a moment's notice, on legislation. Its members could 
not get together without great expense and after travel- 
ing great distances. As they were unused to public 
affairs of magnitude they might even express themselves 
clumsily on great public questions after having assem- 
bled. But they had as deep an interest and as keen 
concern in what affected them as any other class of peo- 
ple, and it was eminently proper that they should be 
represented in the highest councils of the nation. 2 



2 See Congressional Record. Second session, 47th Congress, pp. 
1154, et seq. The hill is there set out in full. 



308 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

Plumb did not succeed, at that time, in passing this 
bill. Perhaps it was not in reason to expect so great a 
step at so early a period in this effort to secure substan- 
tial recognition for the farming classes. On the 14th 
of September, 1888, he moved the consideration of a 
House bill " to enlarge the powers and duties of the 
Department of Agriculture and create the Executive 
Department to be known as the Department of Agricul- 
ture." This bill had been approved by the Senate Com- 
mittee on Agriculture, of which Plumb w T as still a mem- 
ber. He had charge of the bill, had reported it, and 
supported it on the floor of the Senate. On the 17th of 
September he made an earnest speech in its favor. 3 He 
made another on the 20th; but the session had been of 
such unusual length that members were anxious to put 
over to the next session as many pending measures as 
possible and adjourn, and the bill had to wait. On the 
reassembling of Congress Plumb pushed the bill, and it 
passed the Senate late in January. Having Senate 
amendments the bill was sent to conference, and the con- 
ference report was approved February 1, 1889. The 
bill was made a law by approval of the President, on the 
9th of February, 1889, and was as the Senate had fash- 
ioned and amended it. 

The elevation of the Department of Agriculture to the 
highest dignity was one of the matters nearest the heart 
of Senator Plumb, and its accomplishment was a tri- 
umph which followed many years of arduous effort. 
While this Department did not come wholly through 
his exertions in its favor the Record does not disclose 
any such persistent and long-continued work in its be- 
half on the part of any other man. 



8 Sec Congressional Record. Fiftieth Congress, First session, Ap- 
pendix, pp. 539 et seq. 



CHAPTER LI 

HARRISON 

In 1888 there was a peculiar political situation in 
Kansas. Senator Ingalls believed that he might receive 
the nomination of the Republican party for President. 
He had been elected President of the Senate and had 
made a splendid presiding officer. His feud with Presi- 
dent Cleveland had given him prominence. His flay- 
ing of Senator Voorhees was one of the most spectacular 
events ever staged in the United States Senate, and it 
was wildly applauded, especially by many of the old 
soldiers. These were powerful factors in the problem 
of his ambition, and Senator Ingalls it is said, believed 
to his dying day that had he been a resident of Ohio or 
Indiana he could have secured the nomination. 

Plumb had no patience with the Kansas situation. 
He could not oppose his colleague in the Senate. He was 
not pleased, however, with his candidacy. In May, 
18S8, in an interview published in a Washington paper, 
he said the " favorite son " endorsement was " child's 
play." " There is no use of Kansas thinking about the 
nomination. What we want to do is to come together 
and put in nomination the best and strongest man that 
we have," he said. He refused to be a delegate from 
Kansas, but the delegation was composed principally 
of his personal and political friends. The State con- 
vention to select the delegates at large wished to instruct 
for Blaine. Kansas was still for him, but Plumb be- 
lieved he would fail of nomination. He had long since 
lost faith in the possibility of Blaine's gaining the 

Presidency. 

309 



310 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

The manager for Ingalls was James F. Legate, a 
shrewd and resourceful man, but notorious in Kansas 
politics. He secured a sort of compromise in the State 
convention with the Blaine men by which Kansas was 
to be for Ingalls on the first ballot. Ingalls did not ad- 
mit defeat until the Chicago convention had been in 
session two days. On the first ballot he received 17 
votes from Kansas, 10 votes from Arkansas, and one 
vote from South Carolina. 

Plumb never underrated the strength of President 
Cleveland. He thought it would require a stronger man 
than Blaine to defeat him, though with the right candi- 
date he was sanguine of Republican success. As early 
as 1886 he had written Benjamin Harrison a letter urg- 
ing him to be a candidate for the Presidency. To this 
Harrison replied, thanking him, but said, " I am to be 
counted out of the ring." 

When the Republicans had won the Presidency there 
was a movement to make Plumb a member of Harrison's 
Cabinet. This was in defiance of Plumb's known desires. 
In Kansas he was able to control this movement until 
a month after the meeting of the Legislature. No par- 
ticular place in the Cabinet was specified, though he 
was spoken of for Secretary of the Treasury and Secre- 
tary of the Interior. The Kansas press was very en- 
thusiastic, but many of the best papers insisted that the 
State could not afford to permit Plumb to leave the 
Senate. Boards of Trade, political committees, and 
other bodies passed complimentary resolutions. On the 
4th of February, 1SS9, the Legislature also passed res- 
olutions on the subject, among them the following: 

Whereas, ITon. Preston B. Plumb stands to-day before the 
American people, as one of the best examples of what the West 
can produce in the way of brains, pluck nnrl statesmanship; a 
sterling patriot; an uncompromising Republican; a man of 
untiring industry, of broad and progressive ideas, and possessed 
in tin.' highest degree of the knowledge and business-like qualities 



HAHKISON 811 

requisite successfully and satisfactorily to perform the duties of 
a great public position. Therefore, be it 

Resolved, By the Senate, the House concurring therein. That 
the Legislature on behalf of the people of Kansas would be 
pleased to learn that a Cabinet position had been tendered by 
General Harrison to our worthy and distinguished Senator, Hon. 
Preston B. Plumb. 

Resolved, That the President of the Senate be respectfully 
requested forthwith to forward copies of this preamble and reso- 
lutions properly certified to the President and Senator P. B. 
Plumb. 

On February 6th, the Topcka Dally Capital-Common- 
wealth said: 

The resolutions are now to be conveyed to General Harrison 
by a special committee, including some of the leading Republi- 
cans of the State. It will consist of Hon. A. J. Felt, Lieutenant 
Governor; Hon. Henry Booth, Speaker of the House of Repre- 
sentatives and Chairman of the State Republican Committee 
which conducted the last campaign; ex-Governor George T. 
Anthony, of Ottawa; Colonel R. L. Walker, of Topeka; Colonel 
J. R. Hallowcll, of Wichita ; Hon. James Hamilton, State Treas- 
urer ; and probably one or two others. 

The Committee will leave this afternoon for Indianapolis, 
arriving there to-morrow afternoon or evening. They will wait 
on President Harrison, and the resolutions adopted by the two 
Houses without a dissenting voice, will be presented by them, 
probably by ex-Governor Anthony. 

Plumb was duly grateful for this additional expres- 
sion of confidence in him. Hut he would not even con- 
sider a Cabinet position. Tie had just boon unanimously 
elected to a third term in the Senate. He regarded the 
Senatorship as being much superior in every way to a 
Cabinet portfolio. All references, in his speeches, to 
Cabinet ministers and their offices show that he never 
had any desire to fill one of those places. 



CHAPTER LII 

THIRD ELECTION 

In the Kansas Legislature elected in 1S8S there were 
but six Democrats. The election of a Senator was on 
the 22d of January, 1889. It was not necessary for 
Plumb to announce that he was a candidate. Every 
Kansan knew that if he lived he would be elected to 
succeed himself. In all the State there was not a pro- 
test against him from any party or person. He had not 
been able to spend as much time as he desired in Kan- 
sas during the campaign, for his services were in demand 
for the national canvass. And Congress remained in 
session until the 20th of October. Plumb was occasion- 
ally easily and needlessly frightened when his own in- 
terests were concerned. This feeling was always brief, 
and the political perspective always quickly veered 
around to the normal with him. Strange to say, he 
seems not to have been at all troubled in this manner 
in the fall of 1888, when he had little time to devote to 
his own affairs. 

And he was not deceived. For there came to Preston 
B. Plumb what has rarely occurred in American politi- 
cal life — a unanimous election to the United States 
Senate, ne was in Washington at the time, there be- 
ing no necessity for his presence in Kansas. 

On the morning of the 22d of January, 1889, Colonel 
Pankin, member from Douglas County, placed Senator 
Plumb in nomination in the House and said : 

Mr. Speaker: — As Chairman of the Senatorial caucus, held 

the evening of January 9, 1880, under direction then had, it now 

312 



THIRD ELECTION :;i:: 

becomes my duty to present to the House the oame of Preston 
B. Plumb, the unanimous choice of the Republicans of the State, 
as well as that of the great body of our people, irrespective of 
party or party affiliations, to the exalted position of Senator of 
the United States, to succeed himself. In thus communicating 
to this body the action of the caucus, I do that which gives me 
the greatest possible personal pleasure. I have known Preston B. 
Plumb in a multitude of intimate relations from the humble 
walks of pioneer life, nearly thirty years ago, to the fierce activi- 
ties of the army in the field and the vast and varied responsi- 
bilities of the political arena. In all of this time I have never 
known him to fear an enemy or fail a friend. His generous 
sympathy for all worthy constituents and his splendid intellectual 
endowments applied with an untiring energy to his public work, 
have made him both loved and respected in the widest possible 
measure. He should receive, and I trust shall receive the 
unanimous vote of this body. 

There were 118 members present, and every one cast 
his vote for Senator Plumb. 

In the House there were five Democrats, and none of 
them voted in the Senatorial election. 

In the Senate Plumb's name was presented by Sena- 
tor Osborn. On a call of the roll every Senator present 
voted for Plumb. The one Democratic member did not 
wish to vote against him, and purposely absented him- 
self. 1 On the following day, in a joint session of the 
House and Senate, Plumb was declared elected by a 
unanimous vote. 

The press, not only of the State but of the country, 
was cordial and complimentary in comments on this 
unanimous election. The leading paper in Kansas, the 
Topeka Daily Capital, said: 



i This was Ed Carroll, of Leavenworth County. On the assembling 
of the Legislature the other opposition members (five in innnher) 
desired to east their votes for him for United States Senator. When 
informed of this Carroll said that Senator Plumb deserved an unani- 
mous election, and that he hoped he would receive it. After that 
conversation with Senator Carroll there was not a single vote against 
Plumb in the Legislature. 



314 TIIE LIFE OF PEESTON B. PLUMB 

The position Kansas occupies as the banner Republican State 
of the Union will impress itself upon the minds of the nation 
when they read in the associated press dispatches this morning 
that Senator Preston B. Plumb was reelected yesterday by the 
Kansas Legislature by a unanimous vote of that body. This is 
an honor rarely, if ever before, paid a citizen of any State, and 
it is as great an honor to Kansas as to the distinguished gentle- 
man who has so faithfully and worthily represented this State in 
the United States Senate. . . . 

It is such a man that Kansas delights to honor. He is a 
worthy representative of this great State, because he was among 
the early pioneers who blazed a pathway into and through 
Kansas, and assisted in laying the foundation upon which has 
been erected an empire whose greatness has been proclaimed 
around the world and whose zenith reaches the stars. 

The Lieutenant Governor received a letter of ac- 
knowledgment from Plumb. This letter was spread on 
the Senate journal. It was written on the 7th of Feb- 
ruary, and among other things said : 

If the Senatorship were to be regarded primarily as a personal 
compliment — a decoration to be worn rather than a summons 
to important duties to be discharged — I should still find abun- 
dant cause for gratitude in the entire unanimity with which it 
was conferred. It is, however, more flattering to my pride to 
believe that the choice of the Legislature was not made upon 
personal grounds or for purposes of individual distinction. 

No public servant can have a more potent incentive to the 
faithful performance of his trust than the appreciation and 
approval of those whom he is called upon to serve. The appre- 
ciation and approval it has been my good fortune to receive to 
a degree beyond my most ardent expectations, and I hold myself 
bound, as well from a sense of duty as by the promptings of 
gratitude, to give assurance for the future of undiminished zeal 
in behalf of tbose great interests of our commonwealth which are 
dear alike to me and to those who sent me here. 

I should unduly magnify myself if I did not appreciate that 
my indebtedness is due rather to the evident partiality of the 
people and their representatives than to the result of a calm 
anil discriminating test of fitness and merit. 

In addition to the personal gratification which this repeated 
proof of favor has brought me, is my pride in the constituency 



THIKD ELECTION ::ir, 

from whom my commission comes. Amid trials and depriva- 
tions, often confronted by conditions dismal and distressing in 
their character, the earlier Kansans have clung to their faith in 
the future of the State and have lived to see it more than ju 
fied. These pioneers have been strongly reinforced from year 
to year, until now we may boast nearly a million and three- 
quarters of people, self-reliant, hopeful, courageous, a power in 
determining political results, and a still greater factor in the field 
of material production. 

To represent such a people in the Senate of the United States 
quite fills the measure of my ambition. I shall strive to justify 
this renewal of their confidence by renewed devotion to their 
interests as a people irrespective of political divisions as well as 
to what I conceive to be the highest interests of our common 
country. 



CHAPTER LIII 

DEEP-HARBOR CONVENTION 

The marvelous development of the country west of 
the Mississippi immediately following the Civil War 
affected the nation in many ways, but in none more than 
in the production of those articles which enter into 
domestic and foreign commerce. By 1888 the West was 
producing a large portion of American grains and meat. 
The mines of the Rocky Mountains were yielding an- 
nually more than a hundred millions in precious metals. 
Texas and adjoining States were growing millions of 
bales of cotton. There were fifteen millions of people be- 
tween the Mississippi and the great Continental Divide, 
with but a small proportion of the land in cultivation. 
That the future growth of these regions was to be rapid 
was plain, and that the surplus produced for commerce 
was to be vastly increased year by year was evident. 

The lines of destiny in our country ran west from the 
Atlantic seaboard. Our conquest of the land was in 
that direction. This influenced the course along which 
our lines of transportation were constructed, and in the 
eighties, as even now, much of the surplus produced by 
the West touched deep water first at the harbor of New 
York. Soon after the close of the war the West began to 
realize that the Gulf of Mexico was the natural outlet 
to the markets of the world. And, rising above sec- 
tional prejudices, there were some men in public life 
who saw that the interests of a large part of the South 
and West were very nearly identical, and that it would 
operate to the advantage of both could they but act to- 
gether politically. Among the first of these was Plumb. 

316 



DEEP-HARBOR CONVENTION 317 

He had the support of the South iu his efforts to secure 
an increase in the volume of money ; and lie never failed 
to respond to the call for aid to any measure designed to 
benefit the South. 

To obtain Government aid to make a deep harbor on 
the northwest coast of the Gulf of Mexico there was or- 
ganized the Inter-State Deep-Harbor movement, with 
headquarters at Denver. Ten million dollars, it was be- 
lieved, would make a deep harbor, and this sum was 
fixed as the amount the Government should appropriate. 
The location of the harbor was not specified, that being 
left to the discretion of the Government. 

The convention of this movement for 1889 was held in 
October at Topeka. Delegates were present from Ar- 
kansas, Colorado, California, Dakota, Idaho, Illinois, 
Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mis- 
souri, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, Wyom- 
ing, and Texas — in all, 529. Plumb was a delegate, 
and was elected Chairman of the Convention. At the 
beginning of the session on the 2d of October, the Presi- 
dent of the Denver Chamber of Commerce presented 
Senator Plumb a large gavel made of pure silver taken 
from Colorado mines. In his speech of presentation the 
donor alluded to the fact that much of Colorado had at 
one time been a part of Kansas, that Denver was founded 
as a Kansas county-seat and named for a Kansas 
Governor. 

In no account of the convention found are there given 
any of the speeches delivered by Plumb, nor even an out- 
line of them, though he spoke several times. It was 
never his custom to prepare speeches in advance and 
have copies for reporters, which probably accounts for 
their absence from the published proceedings. He had 
advocated the making of a deep harbor at Galveston for 
many years. 

The work of the Convention ended with the adoption 
of a series of resolutions setting forth : 



318 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

That cheap transportation of our commercial products con- 
stitutes one of the most important elements of the general wel- 
fare; 

That Congress has donated to private corporations more than 
one hundred millions of money, and upwards of two hundred 
millions of acres of our national lands with which to construct 
artificial and therefore much more expensive highways, owned by 
private individuals, while they have neglected to make adequate 
appropriations for even one feasible harbor on the northwest 
coast of the Gulf of Mexico, which would not only afford very 
much cheaper transportation, but which, by our organic law, is 
under the exclusive care and control of Congress; 

That the vast and rapidly developing area lying west of the 
Mississippi River, comprising more than three-fifths of the 
national domain, and yielding largely more than one-half of the 
agricultural, meat and mineral products of the entire country, is 
by this neglect forced to transport its commerce across the con- 
tinent by way of these artificial and expensive highways, subject 
to such exactions of private cupidity as amounts always to a 
serious burden, and sometimes total interdiction to both con- 
sumer and producer; 

That there can be no justification of this discrimination in 
favor of private highways, which, during the last year, cost the 
commerce of the West an enormous loss in transportation ex- 
pense, estimated at more than one hundred and twenty millions 
of dollars, or upwards of ten millions per month; 

That in reaffirmance of the action of the Denver Convention 
and of the Committees organized thereunder, it is the sense of 
this convention that it is the duty of Congress to appropriate 
permanently, and for immediate use, whatever amount is neces- 
sary to secure a deep-water port on the northwest coast of the 
Gulf of Mexico. 

Beginning with 1889 and ending with 1912, Congress 
has expended |10,489,714.37 on the Galveston harbor, 
its entrance and channel. A deep harbor has been made. 
But the railroads secured the ship lines, and the freight 
rates by water to New York by way of Galveston w r ere 
made the same as by rail. They so remain. In such 
matter have the corporations neutralized efforts in be- 
half of the people. 



CHAPTER LIV 

FIFTY-FIRST CONGRESS 

Many important measures were considered by the 
Fifty-first Congress. The Force Bill was pressed in 
both sessions by the more radical element of the Repub- 
lican party backed by the President. It was settled in 
the failure of this measure that the negro, in politics, 
would have to take care of himself. The old slogan — 
that the Republican party would see that every man 
should be free to vote as he pleased and have that vote 
counted as cast — was dead. 

The McKinley tariff law was enacted. It created 
much dissatisfaction in the West. It marked that stage 
in tariff legislation in which those profiting from the 
tariff were permitted to write its schedules. 

Thomas B. Reed, as Speaker, revolutionized proce- 
dure in the House by counting a quorum. 

The administration of the United States Treasury in 
favor of Wall Street continued through and beyond this 
Congress. The W T est protested against this injustice, 
but only temporary and scant relief could be secured. 
The influence which Plumb worked so faithfully to 
overthrow remained supreme. 

There was a special session of the Senate, from March 
4 to April 2, 1889. The first session of the Fifty-first 
Congress began December 2, 18S9, and continued to 
October 1, 1890. The second session was from Decem- 
ber 1, 1890, to March 3, 1891. 

The Alaska Commercial Company enjoyed a monopoly 
of the resources of Alaska for many years by virtue of a 
contract made with the Secretary of the Treasury in 

319 



320 THE LIFE OP PRESTON B. PLUMB 

July, 1ST0. This contract expired in 1890, and the 
Secretary advertised for bids for a new contract. Plumb 
never missed anything which was put into a newspaper. 
On the 6th of January, 1890, he submitted resolutions 
directing that the Secretary should not make a new con- 
tract until Congress could have time to investigate the 
whole matter by means of reports ordered to be made. 
The Alaska Commercial Company controlled not only 
the seal fisheries on the Pribilof Islands, but those along 
the shore. The salmon fisheries and the trade with the 
inhabitants of the country were in their hands. It 
was the purpose of the company to retain this valuable 
franchise, and Senator Plumb saw in the terms of the 
new contracts, as outlined in the advertisement for bids, 
indications that other bidders would be at a disadvan- 
tage. It developed that two-fifths of the stock of the 
company belonged to a whaling firm in Connecticut and 
most of the remainder to citizens in Germany. The 
tax paid to the Government was |2 for each seal-skin 
taken. Plumb said it should be more, possibly $10. 
The company kept out any other enterprise and con- 
cealed knowledge of the country and the conditions 
under Avhich trade would be carried on. In his speeches 
on the subject Plumb favored permission for any Amer- 
ican to go to Alaska and enter into business. He fore- 
saw the controversy with England over jurisdiction in 
the Behring Sea, and wished nothing done which would 
embarrass the Government when the question came up 
for settlement. The company was of the nature of a 
special interest and had powerful friends in the Senate. 
These Plumb had to oppose. They prevailed. Nothing 
was investigated. The company secured a renewal of 
its contract. 

No Man's Land was, at that time, being rapidly set- 
tled. Not being a part of any State and having never 
been attached to any territory it was wholly without a 
government. Its position indicated that it should be- 



FIFTY-FIRST CONGRESS 321 

come a part of the State of Kansas, and Plumb en- 
deavored to have it annexed to that State. The Demo- 
cratic party opposed its annexation to Kansas because 
that State was likely to remain Republican in politics, 
and Plumb's efforts failed. The question of its dis- 
position came up again in the Fifty-first Congress, and 
Plumb urged early and definite action, that the settlers 
might have the benefit of law. On the 13th of Febru- 
ary, 1890, he succeeded in having a bill pass the Senate 
attaching No Man's Land to Oklahoma Territory for 
all judicial purposes, and this action ended in its be- 
coming a part of Oklahoma. 

Many of the soldiers of the Civil War believed that 
General Grant should have been buried in the National 
Cemetery at Arlington. On the 2d of August, 1S90, 
Senator Plumb introduced in the Senate a resolution 
to the effect that Congress desired the removal of the 
remains of General Grant to Arlington; it tendered 
Mrs. Grant necessary facilities for the removal and in- 
terment. On the 7th the resolution was agreed to, but 
the House did not concur. 

The sale of alcoholic liquors in the National Capitol 
was repugnant to the moral sense of the people, and at 
this session of Congress Plumb introduced a resolution 
prohibiting such sale in the Senate wing, under such 
regulations and restrictions as might be prescribed by 
the Committee on Rules. An attempt was made to 
amend it in such a manner as to make it obnoxious and 
personal to Senators and thus defeat it. This action 
Plumb resisted, but he was unable to prevent such com- 
mittee reference of the resolution as proved its suppres- 
sion. 

The Force Bill was designed to authorize the use of 
the power of the Government to enable the negroes of 
the South to vote in all Federal elections. These elec- 
tions, on petition of a small number of voters in Con- 
gressional districts, were to be controlled by supervisors 



322 THE LIFE OP. PRESTON B. PLUMB 

appointed by judges of Federal courts. United States 
Deputy Marshals were to be employed under certain 
conditions. Returning boards were provided, and these 
might consider various things affecting the elections 
held, and certify to the election of any man supposedly 
entitled to the office in question. This bill was not a 
new thing. Similar bills had been before Congress, 
and in the days of reconstruction bayonets were some- 
times seen about the ballot boxes. 

The Force Bill originated in the House in June, 1890, 
and it had the earnest support of President Harrison. 
It was sometimes called the Lodge Bill, having been 
reported on the 1st day of July from a Committee of 
which Representative Henry Cabot Lodge was chairman. 
Under a special rule adopted on the 25th of June, and 
which had been reported by Mr. Cannon, the bill was 
put through the House on the 2d day of July by a vote 
of 155 to 149. The consideration of the McKinley Bill 
prevented the Senate from giving the Force Bill much 
attention until the following session. Senator Hoar 
was then in charge of the bill, and he called it up as 
soon as Congress was ready for the transaction of busi- 
ness. For days together he permitted nothing else to 
come before the Senate. 

The financial condition of the country was very bad 
in the winter of 1890-1891. There was no forward 
movement anywhere. Distrust of the future prevailed. 
Senator Plumb was never at heart in favor of the Force 
Bill, but as it was made a party measure he did not 
openly oppose it. Of the Republican Senators none 
was in greater favor in the White House than Plumb. 
But he was more interested in providing relief from busi- 
ness depression than in the passage of a sectional parti- 
san measure. On the 9th of December, 1890, he gave 
DOtice in the Senate: 

That in the event the pending order on the subject which has 
been for some time considered by the Senate is not disposed of 



FIFTY-FIRST CONGRESS IVS.i 

at an early date I shall move to lay it aside for the time being 
in order that this bill and all others which may he proposed 
relating to the financial affairs of the country may he considered. 

I do not say that with a view of advertising what I have pro- 
posed. All I do say is that something ought to be done, and 
that Congress has upon it a responsibility which it cannot, in 
my judgment, avoid for any great period of time without let- 
ting go by a very good opportunity for helping the country, and 
one which will not occur again, in my opinion, for many years. 

It did not become necessary for Plumb to make his 
motion. On the 5th of January, 1891, Senator Stewart 
moved to consider a bill reported by Sherman from the 
Committee of Finance " To provide against the contrac- 
tion of the currency, aud for other purposes." This 
motion prevailed by a vote of 34 to 29, eight Republicans 
voting for it. Plumb voted with his party against it, 
but it was known that he was well pleased with the re- 
sult. In fact, he and Senator Hoar were never again on 
good terms, the latter believing that Senator Plumb wag 
really the moving spirit in pushing aside the Force 
Bill. On the 14th of January, after the passage of the 
Silver Bill, Senator Hoar moved to resume considera- 
tion of the Force Bill. There was a tie vote on this 
motion, and the Vice-President decided the matter in 
favor of Senator Hoar. Debate on points of order 
raised on this vote and the approval of the Journal con- 
tinued until the 22d of January, when Senator Aldrich 
introduced and had passed a resolution to limit the de- 
bate. But this did not help Senator Hoar. On the 
2Gth, when Senator Morgan was speaking on the rule 
limiting debates, Senator Wolcott moved that the ap- 
portionment bill be taken up. This motion prevailed, 
and the Force Bill was dead. 

The Select Committee on Irrigation and Reclama- 
tion of Arid Lands was appointed under resolution which 
passed the Senate February 14, 18S9. Plumb was a 
member of the Committee, the duty of which was to 



324 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

make an exhaustive investigation of the subject of irri 
gation. Every locality having irrigated lands was 
visited. The testimony of persons well informed on the 
subject was taken. 

The report of the committee was submitted by Plumb 
on the 2d of April, 1890, with an amendment to a Senate 
bill on that subject. Later a minority report was sub- 
mitted. All the testimony taken was laid before the 
Senate; and it was printed in ten large volumes. This 
was the first step in the application of scientific methods 
to the reclamation of arid lands by the Government. It 
is in fact the basis of all later action by the Government 
toward a uniform national plan of reclamation. Plumb 
was present at the hearings in the West, and improved 
the opportunity afforded in this work to study the 
general effect of the land laws on the development of 
the country. He found that many changes in the laws 
were necessary. In the general revision of these laws 
made by him in 1891 they were made to conform to the 
new conditions which had arisen. 

Plumb's great debate on the McKinley tariff bill be- 
gan on the 24th of May, 1890, when he introduced a res- 
olution directing the Finance Committee to report to the 
Senate a statement showing the duties levied by the law 
then in force, and the duties on the same articles under 
the proposed bill in parallel columns, with articles and 
duties set opposite one another; also to present to the 
Senate reasons in writing for any increase in duties 
over those in force. It was complained that the resolu- 
tion would, if agreed to, entail an immense amount of 
work. To this objection Plumb replied that it was 
more important that the work of making the new tariff 
lull should be done well than that it should be done in 
a hurry. The resolution was adopted, but it was ignored 
by the Finance Committee. On the 25th of July Sen- 
ator Mcpherson called attention to tin's failure of the 
committee to comply with the order of the Senate, and 



FIFTY-FIRST CONGRESS 

also that no majority report 011 the bill had been made. 
And he called attention to the newspaper reports Hint 
no defense of the bill was to be made by either tin- 
Finance Committee or the Republic;! n caucus. 

The methods employed to enact the McKinley tariff 
were as odious to the West as the schedules of the bill 
itself. The average rate of duty proposed was shown 
to be 42 per cent, higher than the war tariff in 18G4 — 
the war measure which even Senator Morrill did not 
pretend to defend when he presented it to the Senate. 
For this increase no explanation was given beyond the 
general knowledge that the manufacturers insisted that 
they should dictate their own rates and how they should 
be imposed, whether specific, ad valorem, or compound. 

Senator Plumb stood in his place day by day and 
fought for the people. Some of the articles on which 
he sought to modify proposed duties were binding-twine, 
cotton-ties, crockery, cutlery, edgings and embroideries, 
fashion-plates, fish, glass, gloves, sugar, tin-plate. Sen- 
ators Paddock and Pettigrew, and some other Western 
Senators, stood with him, and voted against the bill. 
But all that could be done availed nothing. On the 
vote on the report of the Committee of Conference — 
the last vote — only Plumb, Paddock, and Pettigrew, 
of the Republican Senators, voted against the bill. 
President Harrison told Pettigrew he had voluntarily 
left the party and was no longer considered a Republi- 
can. What, if anything, the President said to Plumb 
is not known ; and it did not matter. He was the friend 
of protection, and he declared that the enemies of that 
principle were those who prostituted it for personal gain. 
He stood for justice. Nothing he ever did more en- 
deared him to the people than his position on the Mc- 
Kinley Bill — not even his efforts to increase the volume 
of currency, for which he labored all his Senatorial 
career. As parties then were he was a stanch Republi- 
can, but he was a follower of Jefferson. He was an 



32G THE LIFE OF PKESTON B. PLUMB 

independent. He cared much for party, but he cared 
more for the right. 

In the matter of considering resolutions the action of 
Plumb fixed the manner of procedure in the Senate. 
Early in the second session of the Fifty-first Congress 
he made a statement on that point. He said that once 
he was insisting that the Chair lay before the Senate a 
resolution he had introduced on a preceding day. Sen- 
ator Sherman proposed to concede the point to Plumb 
as a courtesy. Plumb said he wanted nothing as a favor, 
but he did want whatever he had there as a right. He 
won his contention, and after that time any resolution 
introduced in the Senate would come up the following 
day as a part of the morning business. 

The work done by Senator Plumb in the Fifty-first 
Congress seems now more than it would be possible 
for one man to do. The sheets of the Congressional 
Record containing his remarks and account of his 
labors make a volume of more than a thousand pages 
— nearly twice the size of that of any previous Congress. 
He addressed the Senate at length seventy-five times, 
submitted ninety-nine reports of committees on con- 
ference, was conferee on twenty-nine other bills, offered 
more than one hundred amendments to bills, formulated 
his Customs Commission law, and introduced five hun- 
dred and three bills and resolutions, eighty-three of 
which became laws. He was absent frequently to attend 
the hearings of the Select Committee on Irrigation, and 
his correspondence had grown to enormous proportions. 
1 1 is private business was extensive, and the rise of 
Populism in Kansas unsettled political conditions at 
home and demanded such attention as made large drafts 
on his time. 



CHAPTER LV 

OKLAHOMA 

Senator Allison, in Ms memorial address on the 
life and character of Senator Plumb, said : 

For many years \ie desired, as did the people of the Southwest, 
not only for the Southwest, in Texas, but in the adjacent States 
of Missouri, Kansas, and Arkansas, that the Indian Territory, 
which was held there as in a sack, should he opened up to the 
settlement of the citizens of the United States, in order that 
the region might he more rapidly developed. Indian treaties and 
obligations to the five tribes were in the way. There were those 
who sought to open this Territory without regard to our treaty 
obligations with the Indians. 

If the statutes relating to this subject and the debates leading 
to their passage are examined, it will be seen that Senator Plumb 
was the pioneer in this Chamber, as I believe his successor, M r. 
Perkins, was in the other, of a series of statutes that have 
resulted in the establishment of the Territory of Oklahoma, and 
which will result in the future in absorbing into a single civilized 
State of the Union all there is now left of what was known for 
many years as the Indian Territory. 

Old Oklahoma, or that part of the State organized 
as the Territory of Oklahoma, was ceded to the United 
States bv the "Civilized Tribes" of Indians in 1S6G 
for a specific purpose. It was the policy of the Govern- 
ment, at that time, to place all the Indians of the coun- 
try on adjoining reservations, and this land was ob- 
tained in compliance with that policy. The freedmen, 
former slaves to the Indians, were also to be colonized 
there. In pursuance of this intention the Cheyennes, 
Arapahoes, Conianches and some others of the wild 

327 



328 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. FLUMB 

tribes wore given reservations on these ceded lands. 
The people of Texas and Kansas objected to having the 
savage tribes placed along their borders, and the Indian 
policy in this matter was changed. The Sioux and 
other Indians who had not yet been sent to those lands 
were placed on reservations in their own hunting 
grounds. This left a large area of the Oklahoma ceded 
lands uninhabited. Most of it had been relinquished 
by the Creeks and Seminoles. They had not divested 
themselves of the title to the land and had never con- 
sented that it should be occupied by white settlers. And 
as it had not the absolute title to the lands the Govern- 
ment could not open the country to settlement. That 
was the legal status of Oklahoma when the agitation 
for its occupation began. It was taken for granted 
that the country would be given to white settlers when 
they demanded it. Senator Plumb had warned the In- 
dians and urged them to prepare to meet the new 
conditions. 

David L. Payne was a Kansas politician. He served 
in a Kansas regiment in the Civil War and was a mem- 
ber of the Kansas Legislature. In those days he was a 
Republican, but not receiving the degree of political 
preferment in his party which he believed due him, he 
became a Democrat, and as such secured the position of 
door-keeper for the National House of Representatives. 
While serving in this capacity, he heard, in some way, 
of these ceded lands. Whether he really knew the 
facts concerning them, or purposely misrepresented 
them to forward his own schemes, is not known. He 
lost his position and failed of reinstatement. Resolved 
to make the most of his recently acquired knowledge 
of the Indian country, he came back to Kansas and 
originated the " boomer scheme " to settle on the ceded 
lands, already beginning to be known as Oklahoma, or 
the Oklahoma country. lie led in a band of his fol- 
lowers, but they were expelled by the military. Payne 



OKLAHOMA 329 

was taken to Fort Smith for trial. The Federal court, 
there decided that the lands which had been invaded 

were no part of the public domain and not subject to 
settlement; and Payne was fined $1,000. This w;i^ 
much to his advantage. lie gained wide notoriety. Be 
maintained his "boomer" organization and greatly ex- 
tended it, collecting a sum of money from his followers 
which he boasted exceeded $(10,000. lie died before the 
lands were legally opened to settlement. Had it been 
the object of himself and followers to obtain free lands 
for homes they might have had it for the taking, for at 
that time there were many million acres of better qual- 
ity subject to homestead entry in Kansas. 

Because of the vast amount of vacant land in the 
State, Kansas was opposed to the opening to settlement 
of Oklahoma, and the matter was an issue in Plumb's 
first election to the Senate. After much of the public 
land of good quality in Kansas had been taken the peo- 
ple were favorable to the settlement of Oklahoma, and 
Senator Plumb introduced into Congress some of the 
first measures looking to that end. He caused the for- 
feiture of the unearned portion of the land grant of the 
Atlantic and Pacific Railroad, and aided in making pro- 
visions for the extinguishment of the Indian title to 
all the ceded lands. In 1885 the President was author- 
ized and directed by Congress to make treaties with the 
Indians which would restore the lands to the public 
domain. This the President neglected or refused to do, 
and was sharply criticised by Plumb for his failure to 
execute the laws. 1 



i Congressional Record, Fiftieth Congress, first session, p. 129. 
There had been criticism from other quarters also. The Secretary 
of the Interior, for the President, gave as a reason for not complying 
with the law, that the " boomers " were encamped on the border 
insisting that the land belonged to the Government, and that they bad 
a right to settle on it. To this Senator Plumb replied that these 

boomers" had long been dispersed. Their lenders were making 
the agitation for opening Oklahoma from Wichita, Arkansas City 
and Kansas City, Mo. 



330 THE LIFE OP PRESTON B. PLUMB 

During the last week of the first administration of 
President Cleveland the matter of opening Oklahoma, 
to settlement was made a special measure in Congress. 
The House was Democratic. Mr. Springer, of Illinois, 
was particularly active. A bill to accomplish the open- 
ing was introduced in the House. To the bill as drawn! 
there would have been little or no objection. Mr. 
Springer, however, under pressure from some quarter, 
succeeded in having a number of odious amendments 
made to the bill. His amendments provided that the 
course authorized by law in the matter of town-sites 
should not apply, but instead a strip of land a mile 
wide along every railroad already built and along the 
surveys of those in contemplation should be reserved for 
town-site purposes. The settlers were required to pay 
$1.25 an acre for their land in addition to complying 
with the homestead laws. There were other limitations 
against the settlers and in favor of the speculators. 

Senator Plumb denounced these features of the bill. 
He had for three years favored the organization of 
Oklahoma Territory the minute the Government extin- 
guished the Indian title to the land. And he affirmed 
that there was not a particle of opposition in Congress 
to its organization by fair and honorable procedure. 
For opposing the Springer amendments he was traduced 
and slandered by the lobby behind them and those news- 
papers laboring in its interest. 2 



2 A History of Oklahoma says of the Springer Bill : 

Finally the bill was reported out of the Senate Committee on 
Territories and there was every reason to expect that it would pass 
when the roll was called for a vote on the question. Then, Senator 
Preston B. Plumb, of Kansas, made an impassioned speech against 
the measure and it failed to receive the necessary number of votes. 

The bill never came to vote in tho Senate. It grew in bad repute 
until no Senator would call it up. In a note to the foregoing quota- 
tion it is said : 

It is believed that Senator Tlumb was actuated by purely personal 
motives in his opposition to the measure. He was known to have 



OKLAHOMA 881 

Plumb was neither disturbed nor turned from his 
course by the abuse of the town-site boomers. So un- 
savory were their respective reputations, and so open, 
bold and notorious became their schemes thai no Senator 
would call up the Springer Bill for consideration. It 
was avoided as unclean. The real friends of Oklahoma 



anything but a kindly feeling for some of the men who had been 
most active in promoting the Oklahoma movement. 

As to his animosity to " some of the men who have been most active 
in promoting the Oklahoma movement," it will be sufficient to quote 
Senator Butler, of South Carolina. His speech may be seen in the 
Congressional Record, March 2, 1SS9 : 

During my term of service in the United States Senate I have never 
known so disgraceful, so flagrant, so shameless a lobby around this 
Capitol as has been here in the interest of the passage of this Okla- 
homa Bill. So unblushing and so bold and so reckless has been the 
lobby that, I am credibly informed, they have been peddling in the 
City of Washington townsite certificates on the very land which they 
want to take from the Indians, and have placed those townsite certi- 
ficates on this very identical land in the City of New York at forty 
cents on the dollar. If I had the time and the occasion required it 
I could convince the Senate that the so-called cattle barons, not one 
of whom I have ever known or heard from, are put up as a pretended 
foil for the reckless and disgraceful attempts that have been made 
to thrust this legislation down the throat of this Congress in defiance 
of right and justice and the obligations of this Government. 

The Senate was with Plnmb. Only Dawes, of the New England 
Senators, favored the Oklahoma Bill. The press supported Tlumb. 
The El Dorado Republican said: 

A great big overgrown ring, composed of some of the biggest 
scoundrels on the continent, has been at work for two or three years 
to get a foot-hold in the Territory. These characterless dead-beats 
have swarmed about Washington, and have lived and fattened upon 
the poor people whom they have blackmailed for alleged expense 
money, promising to return certain lands, or "shares" in the towns 
when the lands were available for settlement 

Alleged statesmen, purchasable newspapers, professional blackmail- 
ers, and dilapidated dead-beats made up a considerable portion of tliis 
rotten ring, and they have threatened or bulldozed about every 
Congressman who was supposed to stand in their way. 

Plumb has said all along that he favored the settlement of these 
public lands, provided that none but actual settlers should be per- 
mitted to secure titles. And he has honestly and faithfully stood by 
that announcement. 

In thus remaining loyal to the people he has called down upon him 



332 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

amended the Indian Appropriation Bill by attaching a 
"rider" providing for opening the country to settle- 
ment in a manner creditable to the Government andi 
favorable to the people who intended to make homes ini 
the new country. In the Senate Committee on Appro- 
priations, probably by Plumb himself, the vague and 
indefinite expressions of the "rider" were revised, ar- 
ranged in order, and put into good form and clear 
English. It was favorably received and passed by Con- 

the wholesale abuse of the whole herd of cattle who have been trying | 
to steal ninety per cent, of all that is desirable in the Territory. 

The Kansas Farmer, then edited by W. A. Peffer, afterwards United 
States Senator, and leader of the Alliance or Populist party, said : 

Before the bill passed the riouse it was amended on motion of 
Mr. Springer so as to make inapplicable existing laws relating to 
town-sites, and to enact an entirely new provision, reserving a strip 
a mile wide along every railroad existing or projected in the Terri- 
tory, for the use and benefit of town-site companies. The companies 
were to pay for the lands and were to have the privilege of selling 
them out as a private enterprise. This town-site amendment was 
objectionable. Men were in Washington selling town-site certificates, 
offering them to members of Congress and other persons supposed to 
have influence in legislation. 

Senator riumb simply protested against this townsite scheme 
which would have taken a large portion of the lands from honest 
settlers and have given them to speculators. It was his fight on that 
line that caused offense to men who expected to reap golden harvests 
from this nefarious sowing. It was one of the best things he ever 
did, and he is entitled to credit for it. Public lands ought to be held 
for the people, and not for traders. 

The Springer Bill passed the House but was not taken up in the 
Senate. Not a member of that body seemed willing to touch the un- 
clean thing. But when the Indian Appropriation Bill came along 
several amendments in the way of general legislation — a practice 
which both houses of Congress avoid generally — were made, includ- 
ing all the good features of the Springer Bill, giving the lands to the 
people under the homestead laws, and providing for a commission 
to negotiate with the Cherokees for their interest in the Cherokee 
Strip. All this was agreed to in conference committee, after some 
verbal changes had been made, and the bill, so framed, was approved 
by the President. Senator Plumb was active in all this, and lie took 
occasion to denounce the townsite scheme during the discussion. He 
never was and is not now. opposed to opening Oklahoma, but he 
wants to secure the lands for settlers, uot for speculators. 



OKLAHOMA ;;:::: 

gress. The lands of Oklahoma were reserved to the 
settlers rather than given to the town-site boomers. The 
Territory of Oklahoma was organized and another 
American Commonwealth founded. 



CHAPTER LVI 

INSPIRATION FOR DRAMA 

" The Senator " is a play designed to show the stren- 
uous life of a successful business man prominent in 
official and social life in Washington. A man who has 
struggled with the world and compelled it to yield to 
his will rarely relinquishes all his enterprises when 
called into the public service. This is especially true if 
he be yet a young man, or even in middle life, for his 
plans have not been worked out, and their execution is 
but half completed. He will have developed charac- 
teristics that he will carry into his official duties. 

The Civil War quickened the pulse of our national 
life, and since its close the great majority of successful 
Americans have won by an intense devotion to business. 
They usually began without capital, and its place they 
supplied with energy and personal exertion. 

The recognition of this combination of extraordinary 
business ability with a high sense of official responsi- 
bility sent a brilliant actor to the United States Sen- 
ate in search of a character who would be the inspira- 
tion of a drama. William H. Crane desired to portray 
a Senator who was honest, thoroughly in earnest, and 
capable of achievement worth while. With the mani- 
festation of these traits he wished as much comedy as 
could be put in. It was necessary that the Senator 
should have a strong personality and marked indi- 
viduality. David D. Lloyd, of New York, Washington 
correspondent of the Tribune, was to write the play. 
He submitted sketches of several Senators. These 

334 



INSPIRxVTION FOR DRAMA 335 

were discussed by Crane and his manager. At their 
final consultation with the author, Senator Plumb was 
unanimously selected as the man possessed of all the 
requirements essential to the success of the play. 1 

The principal character in the play is Hannibal 
Rivers, United States Senator from a Western State. 
lie was many times a millionaire. He began without 
capital and made his money by building railroads and 
cities in the undeveloped West. He had taken Wash- 
ington by storm. He was widely known and much 
talked about, and had a reputation for accomplishing 
things in the Senate. He had gone about his duties 
there as he had managed his own business — in a prac- 
tical common-sense way without much regard for pre- 
cedent and Senatorial usage. He was ever pressed for 
time and in a hurry, and there was about him a spirited 
and stirring maimer which pervaded his every action, 
and which he usually communicated to any group or 
gathering which he entered. He kept everything and 
everybody moving. 



i Mr. Crane had never met Senator Plumb. After the first draft of 
the play was completed the actor visited Washington. Mr. Lloyd 
requested him to go into the gallery and observe Senator Plumb on 
the floor of the Senate Chamber, hear him talk, and become familiar 
with his manner. The Assistant Sergeant at Arms, an old friend of 
Crane, suggested that the actor meet the Senator, and arranged the 
meeting, of which Mr. Crane said to the author: 

When I am interested I have been accused of not knowing when to 
stop talking, but on this occasion, though intensely interested I had 
sufficient wit to talk just enough to start Mr. Preston B. Plumb 
talking, and I can truthfully say that I have never had a more 
interesting twenty minutes in my career. We reminisced, he asking 
me many questions about my experiences with Mr. Robson in the 
" Two Dromios," which he stated that he had witnessed several times 
with great pleasure, and he seemed much amused at the little stories 
that I related to him of things that transpired during our experiences 
with this play. But when Mr. Plumb had really warmed up, his talk 
and gesticulations and manners which I was observing closely, 
interested me greatly. I never told him at this time of my intention 
to produce a play called " The Senator " in which he was supposed to 
be the central figure. 



336 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

In Washington Senator Rivers met Mabel Denman, 
a beautiful and worthy girl, the daughter of an old 
gentleman who had for forty years pressed a claim 
against the Government. This claim was for a ship 
destroyed by the British in the War of 1812, and 
amounted to $75,000. Denman was feeble and poor. 
One of his friends of better days was Armstrong, Secre- 
tary of State, and he had known Colonel Elvers, the 
Senator's father. Armstrong gave Mabel Denman a 
position in the Department of State, and employed her 
to teach his children music. It was in the latter ca- 
pacity that she was at the Armstrong home and first 
met Senator Rivers. He came so often, then, on music 
days, as to embarrass Miss Denman, and it was there 
that he first heard of the Denman claim. 

Miss Denman worked as a copyist at home evenings, 
and among those who brought her work were Sharp- 
less, once in Congress, a lobbyist, an office-seeker, and 
chief villain of the play, and Count von Strahl, Austrian 
Ambassador, a libertine and scoundrel. The Count 
made love to Mabel Denman and was, at the same time 
urging Mrs. Armstrong to elope with him. And she had 
agreed to do so on the night of the Legation ball. Sen- 
ator Rivers believed that Miss Denman was in love with 
the Count. Mrs. Hilliary, a young widow, attractive, 
rich, agreeable in manner, tactful, and noted for doing 
good, was the friend of Senator Rivers. At midnight 
Mrs. Armstrong was to come in her carriage and call 
for the Count, when they were to flee together. Senator 
Rivers wished to prevent the elopement. On the 
stroke of midnight a carriage stopped at the door. The 
driver left his seat to enter a saloon. Senator Rivers 
prevailed on Mrs. Hilliary to enter the carriage. Then 
he told the Count that a lady in her carriage was wait- 
ing for him at the door. The Count entered the car- 
riage and Senator Rivers had li is private secretary 
mount the box and drive rapidly away. When Mrs. 



INSPIRATION FOB DEAMA 337 

Armstrong arrived there was no Count to elope with her; 
and when she had reflected on her course she was re- 
pentant and w r as saved. 

Mrs. miliary was useful to Senator Rivers on an« 
other occasion. Sharpless was lobbying for the Con- 
tinental Railroad land grant, which the Senator op- 
posed, as it was a swindle. To aid him in the Senate 
Sharpless had an old Senator named Keene, who was in 
love with the fair widow. Senator Rivers secured the 
passage of the bill in the House allowing the Denman 
claim. It came up in the Senate on the last night of 
the session. Sharpless had been defeated for appoint- 
ment by Rivers, and while he could not get his Con- 
tinental Railroad measure through, it came up on the 
last night of the session, and he had Senator Keene 
take the floor to talk about it the remaining ten minutes 
of the session and crowd out the Denman claim. lie 
proposed to Senator Rivers that he would pull down 
Keene and let the Denman claim through if Rivers 
would help him pass the railroad bill. The situation 
was desperate, but the Senator would not be a party 
to such a fraud even for the Denman claim. He si rode 
forth in a fury. But Mrs. Hilliary was clever. She 
wrote Senator Keene a note on a card saying, " I am 
dying to see you, dear Senator." Keene immediately 
went out to see her. In a few minutes the Denman 
claim was allowed, and Senator Rivers appeared, laugh- 
ing, and said: 

"Well! ha, ha, I never saw anything in my life like it. Old 
Keene had his left arm in the air, and his mouth open, on the 
very point of launching forth another volume of words, when a 
card was brought to him. He stuck. His arm dropped. He 
forgot what he was going to say. He switched off and couldn't 
switch back, fumbled among the notes on his desk, muttered 
some incoherent phrases, said " Excuse me," and toddled out 
of the Senate. 

In securing votes for the Denman claim Senator 



338 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

Rivers left no stone unturned. Once he rushed into his 
office and said to his secretary : 

I've got three more votes for the Dcnman claim. Make a 
memorandum that next session I am to vote for one marble post- 
office for Senator Griffin, two granite custom-houses for Senator 
Melville, and one court-house with a mansard roof for Senator 
Star. — Talk about the log-rolling! The logs I roll to put 
through the Dcnman claim would build our new railroad. 

A distinguished Chinese traveler was then in Wash- 
ington. He was studying American institutions with 
the purpose of writing a book. He was mixed up in all 
the affairs of the play, and, shortly after hearing the 
remark of Senator Rivers, entered in his notes " The 
Government in America consists of three departments 
— pulling wires — laying of pipes — rolling of logs!" 

The passage of the bill allowing the Denman claim did 
not end the matter. Senator Rivers wished to marry 
Mabel Denman. In his belief that she was in love 
with the Count he wrote her a letter to warn her against 
him. This letter fell between the sheets of some copy- 
ing she had done for Sharpless, who attempted black- 
mail with it. Senator Rivers kicked him out of the 
office. Miss Denman came just then to thank the Sen- 
ator for his kindness to her and bid him adieu before 
going South to live. The Senator had never spoken for 
himself, and he saw that it must be now or never. So, 
in an awkward, hesitating way he declared his love, 
and was accepted; but Mabel Denman wished to know 
why he, a man of millions, loved her and would marry 
her. And never overlooking an opportunity for a hu- 
morous retort, he said, " You've got seventy-five thousand 
dollars in your pocket this minute. I'm marrying you 
for your money ! " 

Plumb find Crane became fast friends, and sometimes 
Plumb would go from Washington to New York to see 
" The Senator." On such occasions he spent much of 



INSPIRATION FOR DRAMA 889 

his time in the dressing-room of the famous actor. 
" Plumb was a wonderfully clever story-teller and one 
of the most honorable ami attractive gentlemen I ever 
knew," said Crane. In January, 1891, Plumb gave an 
afternoon lunch in his Committee-room for Crane, who 
there reproduced the third act of " The Senator." A 
number of Senators were present. 

The actor did not try to imitate Plumb's appearance, 
but he did imitate his actions, gestures, and mannerisms. 
He wore a small chin beard, like Plumb, and a hat like 
that worn by the Senator. Once when Plumb went into 
Cranes dressing-room the actor said, "Senator, if you 
are to continue to look like me you must trim that beard 
down to the size of mine." "And," said Crane, "he 
took up the scissors and seated himself before my mirror 
and cut his beard down to the proper proportions." 
Senator Blackburn, who was warmly attached to Plumb, 
told Crane to vigorously rub the back of his neck with 
a large white handkerchief when excited, as that was 
a habit with Plumb in debate. There were twenty-four 
Senators in the audience at Washington when Crane 
did this in the play, and they roared with laughter; but 
the people had no knowledge of the point and did not 
respond with applause. " A more genial companion, a 
better friend, and a kinder gentleman I never met," 
said the actor of Senator Plumb. 



CHAPTER LYII 

SILVER 

In the debates on the Sherman bill to demonetize 
silver it was insisted that the act of March 3, 1849, had 
already accomplished that purpose and legalized the 
gold standard. 1 

It was admitted that the intent of the act had not 
been realized or acted on, and it was urged that it ought 
to be no longer " left to inference or implication." 2 

i By William L. Stoughton, of Michigan, in the House, April 9, 1872. 
His speech is found on pages 2307 to 2310, Volume S9, Congressional 
Globe. 

- The bill which established the gold standard and destroyed silver 
as a money was introduced iu the Senate by John Sherman, April 28, 
1870 — Forty-first Congress. It passed the Senate, January 10, 1871. 
The House made some changes in the bill, but no further action was 
taken in the Forty-first Congress. In the Forty-second Congress 
William D. Kelley reported the bill to the House on the 9th of 
January, 1872. On the 9th of February Samuel D. Hooper reported 
from the Committee on Coinage, Weights and Measures a bill on the 
same subject. It was again reported on the 13th, when a new sec- 
tion was added, and it was made a special order for the second Tues- 
day in March. It was not taken up, however, until the 9th of April, 
when it was debated at length. On the 27th of May it was called 
up, amended by the substitution of a bill differing slightly, and passed 
under a suspension of the rules. No debate was permitted and the 
vote was 110 to 13. The bill appeared in the Senate May 29, and was 
referred to the Committee on Finance. In the Third Session, Forty- 
second Congress, December in, 1.S72, it was reported in the Senate. 
Mr. Sherman reported from the Finance Committee further amend- 
ments January 7, 1873; and on the 17th the bill was considered, 
amended and passed. A conference committee agreed on the follow- 
ing clause relating to silver: 

Sec. 15. That the silver coins of the United States shall be a 
trade-dollar, a half-dollar, or fifty-cent piece, a quarter-dollar, or 
twenty-five cent piece, a dime or ten-cent piece; and the weight of the 

340 



SILVER 341 

That the matter might not remain in donbl was the 
purpose of Mr. Sherman's bill, which was passed with 

as little publicity as possible. It was not generally 
known at the time that silver had been destroyed as 
money, and for some years there were denials that any 
law had produced such an effect. But in the discussion 
of the silver question in 1S90 Senator Flumb said: 

The Senator from Ohio, according to his own statement, helped 
to enact a measure which he says lie knew demonetized silver, 
which thereby increased the value of credits, added to the bur- 
dens of the debtor, and perpetrated a fraud upon him, the eilect 
of which has not yet disappeared. 

The effort to remonetize silver began in the first ses- 
sion of the Forty-fourth Congress, but it was unsuccess- 
ful. 

In the House, Forty-fifth Congress, November 5, 1877, 
Mr. Bland moved to suspend the rules and pass an act 
to authorize the free coinage of the standard silver 
dollar, and to restore its legal tender character. The 
bill passed by a vote of 1G1 to 34, with 92 members not 
voting. In the Senate, on the 21st of November, Mr. 
Allison, from the Committee on Finance, reported the 
bill with a clause which entirely changed its purpose. 
The Secretary of the Treasury was directed to purchase, 
at the market price, silver bullion to the amount of not 
less than two million dollars per month, and not more 
than four million dollars per month, "and cause the 
same to be coined monthly, as fast as purchased, into 
such dollars." 

That this bill would pass the Senate with a provision 
for the free coinage of silver was assured by the previous 



trade-dollar shall be four hundred and twenty grains Troy; . . . and 
said coins shall be legal tender at their nominal value f<>r any amount 
not exceeding five dollars in any one payment 

This report was concurred in by both the Senate and the Ilouse, and 
the bill was approved February 12, 1S73. 



342 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

action of that body. The votes which had been taken 
on it to that time disclosed the fact that neither party 
was united on the financial question, which, had risen 
so suddenly to the foremost place in Congress. It was 
the policy of the Administration to maintain the gold 
standard and pay the national debt in gold coin, that 
being the recommendation of John Sherman, then Sec- 
retary of the Treasury. The President and his chief 
financial officer were from Ohio, notwithstanding which, 
Stanley Matthews, Senator from that State, introduced 
in the Senate a concurrent resolution for the payment 
of certain bonds in silver dollars. 3 This resolution was 
considered January 16, 1878, and the debate on it was 
extensive; thirty-four speeches were delivered in the 
Senate. On January 25, Mr. Conkling moved that it 
be made a joint resolution, which would require the 
signature of the President, but as the views of the Presi- 
dent on that matter had been given in his annual mes- 
sage, the motion was defeated. It was the design of 
the resolution to secure the views of Congress. Mr. 
Edmunds moved to amend it by the insertion of a clause 
declaring for the payment of the bonds " in gold coin 
or its equivalent," which was also defeated. The 
amendment of Mr. Morrill to the effect that such pay- 
ment "will be detrimental to the economical interests 



3 Mr. Blaine, in his Twenty Years of Congress, Vol. II, p. 604, 
misstates the intent of this resolution, making it include " all bonds 
of the United States." Such was not the language of the resolution. 
It was preceded by a preamble expressly defining the issues of bonds 
which by their terms and the acts authorizing them were not payable 
in gold. Then following the resolution : 

That all the bonds of the United States issued or authorized to be 
issued, under the said acts of Congress hereinbefore recited are pay- 
able, principal and interest, at the option of the Government of the 
United States, in silver dollars, of the coinage of the United States, 
containing four hundred and twelve and a half grains of standard 
silver; and that to restore to its coinage such silver coins as a legal 
tender in payment of said bonds, principal and interest, is not in 
violation of the public faith nor in derogation of the rights of the 
public creditor. 



SILVER :U3 

of the Government and the people" was defeated by r 
vote of 41 to 14. Other oil'orts to amend were voted 
down, and both the preamble and the resolution were 
adopted as introduced. In this contest Senator Plumb 
always voted for the resolution. In the House both the 
preamble and the resolution were passed under a sus- 
pension of the rules on the 29th of January, and the 
expression of the financial views of Congress was 
complete. 

On the 15th of February, 1STS, the Bland bill was 
considered in the Senate, and Mr. Morrill moved that 
for the first year but twenty-five per cent, of any pay- 
ments of duties be received in such dollars as it 
authorized, and that for the second year fifty per cent, 
of such payments be made in silver. This provision 
was defeated, Senator Plumb voting in the negative. 
Among the other Republicans voting against the amend- 
ment were Allison, Cameron of Pennsylvania, Cameron 
of Wisconsin, Chaffee, Davis of Illinois, Oglesby, Pad- 
dock, Ransom, Saunders, Spencer, Teller and Windom. 
The opposition then submitted an amendment providing 
for the coinage of one hundred million of such dollars 
in three years, when, if the price for silver bullion during 
the preceding year should be less than ninety-seven one- 
hundredths of a gold dollar, the Secretary of the Treas- 
ury might suspend the coinage of silver dollars until 
further action by Congress. Senator Plumb voted 
against this amendment, as did most of the Republicans 
who had voted with him against the former one. Vari- 
ous other amendments designed to defeat the purpose of 
the bill were offered by those opposed to the remonetiza- 
tion of silver, all of which Senator Plumb voted against. 
The certificate feature of the law was proposed by Mr. 
Booth and adopted, Senator Plumb voting for it. And 
he steadily voted against amendments providing that 
the silver certificates should be redeemed in gold. The 
bill passed the Senate by a vote of 48 to 21, Plumb and 



344 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

a majority of the Republican Senators voting for it. 
Among the Senators voting against the bill were Blaine, 
Conkling, Dawes, Edmunds, Hamlin and Iloar. The 
international conference feature of the silver question 
made its appearance in this bill as a Senate amendment. 

In the House the question of concurring in the amend- 
ments made to the bill by the Senate came up Febru- 
ary 21, 1878, and Mr. Ilewitt moved to lay on the table 
the bill and the amendments, which was defeated bv a 
decisive vote. The amendments were all concurred in, 
but divisions were demanded on most of them. 

On the 28th of February President Hayes returned 
the bill to the House of Representatives with his objec- 
tions to its passage. The House at once passed the bill 
over the President's veto by a vote of 196 to 73. In the 
Senate, on the same day, the bill was passed over the 
veto by a vote of 46 to 19, Senator Plumb voting to 
override the veto. 

Conditions in 1890 were much the same as in 187S. 
Following the speculative era all interests of the country 
were depressed. In the West the people were flounder- 
ing in a sea of debt, most of which was secured by mort- 
gages on homes and farms. Values were low and 
steadily declining. Much of the most fertile land in 
America could not be sold for enough to discharge the 
mortgage indebtedness against it and which had been 
supposed to represent about one-third of its value when 
incurred. In Kansas corn had little more value than 
would pay its own freight to market, and was used for 
fuel in remote localities. In 1890 a large portion of 
the real property in Kansas was in process of fore- 
closure. Political unrest disturbed the people, and 
from the old Alliance grew the Populist party, which 
demanded many social and economic reforms, among 
them an increase in the volume of money. In 1884 
Kansas had given Blaine a majority of about eighty 
thousand. By 1890 this great Republican majority had 



SILVER 345 

been swept away, ami the State was in control of the 

Populists. 

Plumb was one of those who had made it possible to 
form the Republican party and was strongly grounded 
in the necessity of fealty to its principles, but his sym- 
pathies were always so much with the people thai he 
never was an uncompromising party man. The disi ress 
which he saw on every baud appealed to him, and he 
was disposed to favor any reasonable policy winch 
promised relief. On the 21st of April, 1890, he intro- 
duced in the Senate a concurrent resolution directing 
the Secretary of the Treasury to increase the purchase 
and coinage of silver bullion to the maximum amount 
authorized by the Bland act of 1878. But he did not 
wait on this. May 1G, to pending legislation dealing 
with the Treasury surplus, he introduced an amendment 
limiting the amount to be retained in the Treasury to 
1110,000,000. In support of this plan he said the Sec- 
retary of the Treasury supposed himself the linch-pin 
of the financial interests of the country and had to take 
into account the barometrical condition of things in 
New York. " I wish he would take into account what 
is the condition in other places besides New York. I 
want, so far as I am concerned in the discharge of my 
responsibility, to take the Treasury Department out of 
all this scheme of national finances." Later he modi- 
fied his amendment so that gold and silver for the 
redemption of certificates might remain in the Treasury, 
and in commenting on this matter said that the national 
Treasury seemed always at the service of New York — 
that one could get a better idea of what the Treasury 
w T ould do by reading a New York newspaper than by 
reading the report of the Secretary. 

There was pending in the Ilouse, in June, 1890, a bill 

providing for the purchase, at its market value, of all 

Isilver bullion produced by the mines of the Tinted 

States, and to pay for it with certificates or Treasury 



346 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

notes redeemable in silver bullion or gold coin at tin 
option of the Government, and repealing the Bland ac 
of 1878. This bill was prepared by William Windom 
then Secretary of the Treasury. The House substitutec 
for this bill one prepared by Mr. Conger, providing fol 
the purchase of $4,500,000 worth of silver bullion { 
month with Treasury notes redeeemable in coin, anc 
repealing the Bland act, which was passed. In tin 
Senate this bill was reported with amendments on tin 
11th of June. On the 17th Senator Plumb moved t( 
strike out section one of the House Bill and substitut< 
for it the following: 

That from and after the date of the passage of this act tin 
unit of value in the United States shall be the dollar, and tin 
same may be coined of 412% grains of standard silver, or of 25.i\ 
grains of standard gold; and the said coins shall be equalh 
legal tender for all sums whatever. 

That hereafter any owner of silver or gold bullion may deposi jj 
the same at any mint of the United States to be formed intq 
standard dollars or bars for his benefit and without charge; but 
it shall be lawful to refuse any deposit of less value than $100 
or any bullion so base as to be unsuitable for the operation: 
of the mint. 

This was agreed to after modification at the instance 
of Senator Vest of the last clause of the first sentence! 
to make it read, " And the said coin shall be legal tendei 
for all debts, public and private." Plumb then securec 
the adoption of a section saving some of the features 
of the Bland act, when, after further amendments, the 
bill passed. The House did not accept the amendments 
of the Senate, and a committee of conference reportec 
a compromise bill providing for the purchase of 4,500, 
000 ounces of silver bullion a month with Treasury notes 
redeemable in gold or silver coin, 2,000,000 ounces oJ 
said bullion to be coined into standard silver dollars 
each month to the first day of July, 1891. As a con' 
fcrence report this bill was adopted in the Senate by s\ 



SILVER 847 

strict party vote — 39 Republicans for it, and 20 Demo- 
crats against it. It was agreed to in the House, and was 
the best measure that could be obtained. 

As long as Senator Plumb was in public life no party 
ever declared for a single money standard. To the day 
2 of his death the money question had not become a part} 

I question. The issue was always between the bondhold- 
ers and the people — between the creditor class in con- 
lf : trol of the Government, and the people without any 
■Of effective voice. 

The Republican platform adopted at Chicago in 188S 
contained the following on bi-metalism : 

The Republican party is in favor of the use of both gold and 
, silver as money, and condemns the policy of the Democratic 
, Administration in its efforts to demonetize silver. 

The gold standard was not made a tenet of the Re- 
t publican party until 1896, when it caused a serious 

II defection and the organization of a party known as the 
Free-Silver Republicans. The movement for the free 

11 coinage of silver was not to that time a party move- 
ment. It was not so much a question of standards. It 
ji was first, last, and always a question of currency — 
!i volume of money — enough money in the hands of the 
a: people for the transaction of their business. It was the 
1 struggle of the people against the injustice and oppres- 
1 sion of the creditor class. And it was, too, in a sense, 
I the first effort of the West and South to secure some 
I voice in the control of their own affairs. 
ti In all his advocacy of the free coinage of silver Sen- 
iJ ator Plumb justified himself by reference to existing 
J conditions. His speeches on the subject are proof posi- 
1 tive that it was not a governmental policy that he was 
1 contending for. Whether he would have supported a 
J measure making the free coinage of silver the settled 
| policy of the Government is a question involving many 



348 TriE LIFE OF PRESTON B. TLUMB 

contingencies. If such a measure had been adopted and 
had proven detrimental he would have been the first to 
urge its repeal. It was the interest of the people alone 
that he sought. In his day Africa had not begun to 
yield her enormous harvest of gold; the Klondyke and 
other Alaskan fields had not been discovered; and the 
possibilities of our gold-producing States had not been 
realized. In recent years the increase in the quantity 
of gold available for money, together with the augmenta- 
tion of credit, have accomplished what was hoped 
for from the free coinage of silver — the expansion 
of the volume of money to a point where it is sufficient 
for the transaction of the business of the country. It 
could not then be foreseen that enough money could be 
secured without the free coinage of silver. 4 In a speech 
in the Senate on the 6th of June, 1S90, Plumb called 
attention to the fact that the credits of the country 
amounted then to more than twenty billion dollars, and 
that the actual money in circulation did not exceed five 
hundred million dollars, and among other things said : 

Upon this narrow foundation lias been built the enormous 
structure of credit of which I have spoken. Over twenty thou- 
sand million of debts, the enormous and widely extended businc-s 
of sixty-five million people, all rest upon and must be served by 
a volume of currency which must seem to the most veteran finan- 
cier as absolutely and dangerously small. The business of the 



* On this subject John Sherman afterwards wrote that he prepared 
at the time a table showing that there had been a " steady increase 
of circulation during the period named." Mr. Sherman's table shows 
an increase from $805,000,000 in 1878 to $1,405,000,000 in 1889, but 
there is no information as to how this was held. The sums held by 
the Treasury for various redemptions did not appear. There was 
nothing to indicate what the growth of business during that time had 
been — no showing as to proportion of money to business increase and 
demands. It did appear that there had been a steady contraction of 
National bank notes from 1S82 to 1SS0. 

Senator Plumb's statement in the Senate on June 0, 1800, that the 
actual money then available to the people did not exceed $500,000,000 
was not seriously questioned. 



SILVER 849 

country has doubled during the last twelve years. Under present 
conditions instead of certainty there is uncertainty, National- 
bank currency is constantly shrinking, and the capricious Imt 
nearly always contracting action of the Treasury is a constant 

menace to all legitimate business. But the currency volu doee 

not alone or chiefly relate to future transactions. It measuri - 
time contracts executed in the past, absorbing profits and capital, 
taking away from the struggling debtor and giving to the idle 
creditor. This structure of credit built upon the narrow base 
must necessarily be insecure. Its continuance must depend upon 
the careful management of somebody, and to whosoever it is 
intrusted there is given an equivalent in the shape of power. 
The only human ambition worth mentioning in any arena where 
men contend is that of power; and the secret, in my judgment, 
of the opposition which great bankers in this country make to 
the increase of the circulating medium, as a rule, is because 
they do not w r ant to be shorn of this enormous power which they 
have over the business of the people of the country and which 
they desire to keep. . . . 

The Senator from Vermont (Mr. Morrill) affects to see in 
the proposition to enlarge the volume of the currency to meet 
increasing population and business an element of repudiation, 
and appealing against it, brings forward the New England 
widow, who did duty in opposition to the silver legislation of 
1878 which has been attended with such valuable results for the 
whole country, as well as against all propositions for an increase 
of the circulating medium. 

There is a story afloat, and it may have got into print, about 
some man who went to Tophet and succeeded in getting back, 
probably the only instance on record; and, when he was asked 
what he saw down there, replied that he saw a certain individual, 
or perhaps it was a party, holding the darkies between himself 
or itself and the fire; and so this New England widow, the 
holder of mortgages or bonds or of railroad stock, is brought in 
here and held before the fire, but behind her ample skirts are 
the holders of six thousand million of dollars of the funded debt 
of the United States, and other added millions of credits who, 
by reason of the demonetization of silver and a constantly con- 
tracting volume of the currency, have had their securities made 
far more valuable than they would otherwise have been, and to 
the corresponding disadvantage of the debtor. 

It remains to be seen whether this frugal widow with the cloud 
of rich witnesses behind her, whose sole interest is to have their 
holding increased in value by a contraction of the currency and 



350 TIIE LIFE OF PRESTON B. TLUMB 

the maintenance of the single gold standard, will prevail, or 
whether Congress will take into account the men who have put 
all they have got into the sea of venture rather than those who 
represent capital which has been taken out of the current of 
ordinary risk and put into the safe and permanent shape of 
bond and mortgage. . . . 

Civilization is expanding. Eegions of country that have here- 
tofore known nothing about dollars or measures or standards of 
value are coming under the beneficent influences of Christianity 
and civilization with the effect of creating a greater demand for 
money. Are new conditions to be harnessed to old ones? Is 
the world to be circumscribed in its development by the amount 
of gold which after the consuming demand of the arts is left for 
currency purposes ? If not, with what is it to be supplemented ? 
Those who advocate the gold standard must answer this. Those 
who propose the single standard must be prepared either to say 
only such growth can occur and such business be transacted as 
may with safety be based upon a comparatively decreasing 
medium of exchange, or else they must make perfect some plan 
for the enlargement of such medium of exchange. 

I risk nothing in saying that things cannot go on as they 
are. If the demand for a bi-metallic standard is not granted, 
then either gold must be wholly discarded for paper whose value 
will be determined by volume and legal tender quality, or the 
amount of gold which constitutes a dollar must be from time 
to time reduced. The world cannot do business upon the basis 
of extended credit if the measure of value is to constantly grow 
more and more valuable in proportion to property. . . . 

We are sixty-five millions of people, soon to be a hundred 
millions, possessing a continent of immense resources, with more 
intelligence and enterprise than any other people in the world. 
The Anglo-Saxon race is bound to lead, and the American people 
ought to have primacy in the councils of that race. . . . Our 
opportunity is before us. Leadership is more the result of 
courage than of finesse. We need the courage now to take first 
place and mark out a policy which all the nations will be under 
constraint presently to follow. . . . The good sense no less than 
the patriotism of the Senate is appealed to to create the broad 
foundations on which we can safely build and which will make 
the opportunity which our people will gladly embrace. 

Let us break whatever bands bind us to the body of death 
represented by that fixed capital which produces nothing, which 
i-liims the sea of venture, which discourages enterprise, and which 
oppresses labor. It is joined to its idols; let it alone. Instead 



SILVER 851 

let us legislate for the majority, the people whom Lincoln called 
the common people, whom he trusted, and upon whom the 

Republic rested during the fateful period of the war, ami who 
brought the country and liberty through triumphant. 



CITAPTEE LVIII 

PUBLIC LANDS 

In 1881 Plumb was made Chairman of the Senate 
Committee on Public Lands. His acts in that capacity 
will influence our national life to remote times. The 
conservation of our natural resources originated in a 
provision of his Committee for the preservation of the 
forests on public lauds by the establishment of national 
timber reserves. This assures the permanency of 
streams furnishing water for the reclamation of arid 
lands. Irrigation was recognized as worthy of national 
supervision and development. 

The public domain was principally in the Western 
States and Territories. Plumb aided in the formation 
of six States, — Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South 
Dakota, Washington, and Wyoming. The territories 
had no representation in the Senate, and there Plumb 
was in a sense the direct representative of the West. 
This entailed heavy responsibilities. Nothing else so af- 
fects a nation as its law governing the use and owner- 
ship of land. Senator Plumb had to deal with questions 
affecting the land grant of millions of acres, as well as 
the claim of the lowly squatter without a title to his 
home. The rights of settlers were always safeguarded. 
No better instance of this can be cited than his course 
in relation to New Mexico. Much of that Territory 
was covered with Spanish grants, many of them fraud- 
ulent, and many in the hands of land pirates. In 1881 
the owners of these caused to be introduced in the Sen- 
ate a bill by which all grants of land made by Spain and 
Mexico could be confirmed, and legal limits set to their 
vague and indefinite bounds. Plumb opposed it for the 

352 



PUBLIC LANDS 353 

reason that it took no notice of the humble Mexican liv- 
ing on what was in effect a grant of a few acres, Be 
endeavored to amend the bill in favor of the latter as 
against both the large land owners and the Dnited 
States. His views are set out in what he said January 
31, 1881: 

I think if the bill is to be passed the limitations of tho 
authority of the court to pass upon incomplete titles ought to 
be stricken out, and that all the rights of all the citizens of 
New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Nevada under the treaty 
should be passed upon by this commission. 

I am the more enforced in my judgment of that hy the fact 
that there is a large class of people in New Mexico, who if this 
provision is to be adopted will be cut out of their rights entirely. 
There are located in the valley of the Kio Grande and more 
particularly in the neighborhood of the City of Albuquerque, 
quite a large number of people who are living upon small tracts 
of land running probably all the way from live acres in extent, 
limited and varying in width upon the Rio Grande River, and 
extending back across the bottom and on the mesa, giving tillable 
land and pasture land of irregular shape, conformed to no theory 
of survey, forming an aliquot part of no quarter-section of 
land or section of land, as we know it under our system of sur- 
veying land. These people do not hold there by reason of a 
grant in the ordinary sense of the term nor in the sense in 
which that term is used in the bill. They and their ancesi 
have lived upon those tracts of land, some of them as long as 
two hundred years without changing possession or location. 
Others of them have been in possession as long as one hundred 
years, and none of them perhaps less than fifty years. T 
people under this bill would absolutely be cut out of all title 
whatever to their possessions. 

Plumb's amendments to the bill in favor of these 
Mexicans were persistently voted down. But the courl 
as finally constituted had some discretion, and a member 
of it has said : 

It developed that there were hundreds of poor people, mostly 
New Mexicans of Spanish extraction, who held small tracts of 
land fronting on streams and running back to cliff or mi 
They had no titles to these lands save that of p ion. Their 



354 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

ancestors had lived on these tracts, neglected and undisturbed by 
the Spanish Government. Plumb was particularly anxious that 
these poor people should be confirmed in their rights to this 
land. He often said to me that his chief concern was that they 
should be taken care of. And they were given their lands with 
a good title. 1 

The attitude of Plumb to the land grants made to 
aid the construction of railroads always was that the 
roads should have every acre of such land earned by 
them. All lands unearned, from any cause, he insisted 
should be forfeited and returned to the public domain. 
Many millions of acres were declared forfeited and were 
reclaimed by the Government. Settlers on these grants 
were always protected in their rights. 2 

President Cleveland caused radical changes in the 
administration of the land laws. Of these changes 
Plumb made public mention. His speech defines clearly 
the difference in the policy advocated by each of the two 
parties. 3 

The two great political parties in this country present upon 
all economic, political, and administrative affairs a radical con- 
flict of systems; and in no direction are the lines of controversy 

i Judge Henry C. Sluss, Wichita, Kansas, to the author July 17, 
1910. 

" That all actual, bona fide settlers upon any of the lands herehy 
resumed . . . who possess the proper qualifications under the general 
land laws, and are in actual occupancy thereof at the date of the 
passage of this bill, shall, for the purpose of this act, be considered 
as having entered upon the same lawfully," etc. 

Some provision of this nature he always made a part of such bills. 
For the quotation given above, see Congressional Record, March 1, 
issr.. 

2 When the bill for the forfeiture of the St. Paul & Sioux City 
Railroad land grant was under consideration he brought in an amend- 
ment providing, 

s Fiftieth Congress, First Session, September 24, 1888. See Con- 
gressional Record of that date for entire speech. It was necessary 
for him to defend the policy of the Republican party, for the changes 
made by President Cleveland constituted an indirect charge against 
the Senate Committee on Public Lands. 



PUBLIC LANDS 355 

more sharply drawn than in the methods and objects of legisla- 
tive and executive action relative to the public lands. 'I 
Democratic party has at all times Bought the benefit of the few 
as against the many. Possessing the cheapest labor in the world 
in the section of country from which it has mainly drawn its 
support, it has never sought by the subdivision of landed interests 
or by the maintenance through advance methods of cultivation of 
soil already reclaimed to foster a population of industrious 
middle classes. On the contrary by the abandonment of planta- 
tions as soon as they were worked out, the necessity was treated 
for such a public-land system as would constantly provide new 
areas for easy occupation and as would naturally maintain a 
landed oligarchy. 

In striking contrast, the Republican party came into existence 
with the land policy, which it has ever since maintained, of 
" Land for the landless, homes for the homeless." It has at 
all times sought to subdivide the public domain amongst and 
for the benefit of actual settlers. It has zealously guarded, pre- 
served, and improved the areas once conquered by cultivation ; it 
has in regular progression pushed onward its ever-advancing 
fringe of small agricultural homes; and it has thus developed 
and fostered empires of citizens enjoying an honest and pros- 
perous equality before the law. 

It is, therefore, but natural that when the Democratic party 
succeeded to power in 1885, after twenty-four years of enforced 
retirement, it should at once attack the Republican administra- 
tion of the public lands. It was to be expected that its leaders 
should seek to break down the system which had in the previous 
quarter-century so signally multiplied, developed and strength- 
ened the North. As it went out of power in 1861 with a veto of 
the homestead law, it came into power in 1885 with the pnr] 
and necessity of repudiating its beneficent results. And no 
better way to accomplish that result occurred than to discredit 
those results by loud cries of fraud, and by alleging that its 
administration "for the benefit of actual settlers had always been 
in the interests of great monopolies. 

Accordingly, Mr. Cleveland's administration came into power 
with the assertion that the public land laws had been adminis- 
tered by the Republican partv in defense of the interests of land 
grabbers and monopolists. The policy of reform was. therefore, 
to be initiated. The poor settlers of the country were to be 
protected from speculators; the railroad companies and similar 
monopolies were to be restricted to such rights as would accrue 
to them under a rigid construction of the statutes. . . . 



356 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

As the first step in the inauguration of this reform policy Mr. 
Commissioner Sparks was sworn into office on the 20th of March 
and took his scat March 27, 1885. In precisely six working days 
he assumed to have so mastered the theory of the puhlic-land 
system, and to have got the details of its practical adminis- 
tration so well in hand, as to warrant him in issuing the fol- 
lowing sweeping order: 

Washington, April 3, 1885. 
Order : 

Final action in this office upon all entries of the puhlic lands, 
except private cash entries and such scrip locations as are not de- 
pendent upon acts of settlement and cultivation, is suspended 
in the following localities, namely: 

All west of the first guide meridian west in Kansas; all west 
of range 17 in Nebraska; the whole of Colorado, except lands 
in the late Ute reservation; all of Dakota, Idaho, Utah, Wash- 
ington, New Mexico, Montana, Wyoming and Nevada, and that 
portion of Minnesota north of the indemnity limits of the 
Northern Pacific Railroad and east of the indemnity limits of 
St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Eailroad. 

In addition, final action in this office will be suspended upon 
all timber entries under the act of June 3, 1878: also upon all 
cases of desert land entries. 

Two remarkable facts will appear upon the face of this order. 
Whilst it pretendedly was aimed at the suspension of fraud by 
suspending the laws under which frauds were possible, it — 

1. Draws a clear distinction in favor of speculators and scrip- 
owners and against actual settlers. The laws suspended affected 
all " entries of public land, except private cash entries, and such 
scrip locations as are not dependent upon acts of settlement and 
cultivation." The preemption, homestead and other settlement 
statutes were taken by the throat, and the perfection of titles 
thereunder was absolutely inhibited, whilst private entries (cash 
purchases without limit as to quality and without requirement 
of settlement) and all character of scrip or warrant speculation, 
requiring no acts of settlement or cultivation, were left wholly 
undisturbed. The immediate effect was to give a large enhanced 
value to all such outstanding scrip in the hands of a land ring, 
what are known as " additional homesteads " alone rising at once 
from eight or nine dollars per acre to between twenty and thirty 
dollars per acre. Probably three or four men held the greater 
proportion of all such out slain ling scrip and realized large for- 
tunes from the immediate effect of this order. 



PUKLIT LANDS 357 

2. The order assumed the lines of Buspected Fraud under the 
settlement laws of Congress to be geographical and political. 
The fraudulent line was drawn at the line of the State 

cently in rebellion." Whilst all lands in the Southern States 
were by law subject to sale at private entry and continued to 
be so disposed of, their disposition, not being prohibited or other- 
wise affected by the Commissioner's order, the Lands in the North- 
west were not so subject, and could only be located with the 
prospect of obtaining title, after the issuance of the foregoing 
order, by means of land scrip at largely enhanced prices, until 
(as under the order recited) the Administration was convinced 
that every Northern man who wanted to settle on the public do- 
main was not a thief and a swindler. This system condemn! d in 
a wholesale way the settlers of the Republican States and Terri- 
tories in the Northwest as a band of thieves and perjurers. It 
advertised to the world the official opinion of the administration 
that the settlers of that country, made up very largely of sailors 
and soldiers who fought the battles of the late war on both 
sides, and who were supposed to represent the real strength of 
the Government, were, in fact, an army of tramps and outlaws. 

The administration also declared thai the policy of 
granting lands to railroads to aid in their construction 
in unsettled sections was of Republican origin, and thai 
by this policy much of the public domain had been 
wasted. In answer to this Plumb produced records and 
figures to show that the system of railroad land grants 
originated in the Democratic party. That up to 1850 
it had donated to public and private road enterprises 
5,000,000 acres of public land. Thai the acl of Sep- 
tember 20, 1850, gave the Illinois Central Railroad Com- 
pany 2,595,053 acres of rich prairie land. That the 
same act gave the Mobile and Ohio River Railroad Com- 
pany 1,409,440 acres. In 1S56 and 1857 forty-seven 
grants of public lands were made to railroads, many of 
them approved by President Buchanan, who vetoed the 
homestead bill on the ground that he had no authority 
to give away public land. He had then approved rail- 
road grants for more than 30,000,000 acres. The I demo- 
cratic party originated the plan of withdrawing public 
lands from entry and sale within the limits of these 



35S THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

grants, which only included alternate sections. And 
these withdrawals were often made before the passage 
of the acts making the grants. More than 75,000,000 
acres of land had been given railroads prior to 1861. 
The anticipatory withdrawals of public land in favor of 
the railroads swelled this to a total of 207,000,000 acres 
to the same date. Plumb specified the grants, summar- 
ized them, and he gave the names of prominent Demo- 
crats back a generation who had managed these grants, 
— among them Jefferson Davis, William R. King, S. A. 
Douglas, and Thomas A. Hendricks. The latter was 
Commissioner of the General Land Office under Presi- 
dent Pierce and made many anticipatory withdrawals 
of public lands in favor of the railroads, some of them 
by telegraph, so great was his hurry. In 1845 Douglas 
had proposed a grant of each alternate section of public 
land for a distance of forty miles on each side of a 
line from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean. 

The Democratic party had dissipated the public lands 
in another way. Under guise of aiding States to build 
levees and drain lands they were given swamp lands 
to the amount of 77,407,273 acres. This land was used 
by the States (most of them Southern States) for 
purposes wholly different from that for which it was 
designed, much of it falling into the hands of specula- 
tors. Great areas of fine agricultural land were given 
to States under this act. Florida contains an area of 
30,704,578 acres, and under this swamp land act it was 
given 16,209,095 acres. She disposed of it to private 
parties and to corporations and never built any levees, 
and dug no drainage ditches. 

Senator Plumb showed a similar disregard of law and 
public interest in the Democratic party in its dealing- 
wit li the Spanish grants in New Mexico. It permitted 
the public lands of that Territory to be seized by specu- 
lators holding these grants and was a party to the fraud. 
No such grant could legally be for more than four square 



TUBLIC LANDS 359 

leagues of land, about 17,000 acres. Through' a Private 
Land Claims Committee in 1859 and I860 the Maxwell 
land grant was confirmed to the amount of 1,714,764 
acres. Other claims, in plain violation of all law, were 
confirmed respectively for SL^fiSl acres; 504,515 acres; 
447,535 acres; 378,537 acres; 31S,G99 acres; and many 
others received from ten to forty times as much as they 
were entitled to. 

Thus did Plumb justify the public land policy of the 
Republican party. It was his belief that the homestead 
law was one of the wisest provisions ever made by a 
government and that its operation was to influence our 
national life far into the future. He saw in the great 
multitude of independent land-holders who had pos- 
sessed the hardihood of body and mind to conquer and 
subdue the wilderness, the fountain from which was to 
flow the best of our population for many centuries. 
Year after year he had seen this army of peaceful con- 
quest assault the unbroken solitude and brave its 
dangers, extending the borders of our civilization. He 
had witnessed the battle of this army against the 
obstacles of nature and had seen the forbidding line 
" of the wild " driven back the width of a county year 
by year. He had been one of that advance-guard on the 
Great Plains, and he saw something to reverence in 
settlers. In his speech on the " Irrigation of Arid 
Lands," delivered in the Senate July 16, 1S90, he paid 
a tribute to the pioneer which is one of the best indica- 
tions of his serious reflection on the tendencies of Ameri- 
can democracy: 

There is another policy and a wiser one, which gays that 
wherever the Government has land which any citizen wishes for 
the purpose of making a home thereon, for the purpose of de- 
veloping it and making it fruitful, we will let him have it. It 
gives opportunity for enterprise, a field for the energies and apti- 
tude of our people. It gives them something to do on American 
soil, enables them to change their occupation, operates to relieve 



360 THE LIFE OP PRESTON B. PLUMB 

congestion which comes in our great cities; it is our perpetual 
safety-valve. It has brought about the great internal develop- 
ment, to be followed some day very soon by an external one 
equally great and which could not have come without it, and 
which makes the United States to-day the leader in everything 
except aggression among the nations of the civilized world. 

"We have one thing which more than anything else is the 
foundation of our national independence, and that is a surplus 
of food products; and along with that we have a railroad system 
which will enable us to bring these products to any given point 
for foreign shipment or domestic use cheaper and quicker than 
the resources of any other nation can thus be focused. The 
pioneer has had his share in this great work and no history of 
the growth of this country during the past fifty years would be 
worth opening the pages of if it did not take into solemn and 
thoughtful account what he has done. He has blazed the way 
for the teeming millions who occupy the West ; he has sown what 
others have reaped. The country and not himself has had the 
fruit of his labors. The doubts and dangers he confronted were 
manifold, largely unforeseen, and yet always courageously met. 
He gained for himself sometimes; oh, yes, but where one man 
gained ten lost. There was but one inevitable gainer — the 
country. Every sacrifice of the pioneer brought wealth to the 
nation. . . . 

There is no such record of fortitude, of courage, of patient 
determination, of that patriotic building which takes little 
account of one's own self but always the prosperity of all, as 
that exhibited by the settler upon the Western frontier. . . . 

He has not always found enemies in the land office, and 
against his individual sins, venal and rarely involving moral tur- 
pitude, I put the greatest accomplishment the human race has 
ever shown in the development of any country. "Whoever else 
may reproach him, I Avill not. Whoever else may seek to find 
blemishes in the great achievement, I will not. To us the 
splendor of it obscures them all. 

It was Plumb's idea that the public lands should bo 
bestowed only on Americans, and that aliens should be 
prohibited from acquiring land in the United States. 
On his initiative this idea had been enacted into law. 
In the speech from which the above quotation is made 
he said : 

I believe there ought to be no principle more sacred than 



PUBLIC LANDS 301 

this: That all the soil over which the American flag floats shall 
be in the ownership either of the (hnvrnment of the United 
States or of the men who yield obedience to it as citizens, and 
the bill which I had the honor to introduce in the Senate and 
which became a law forbids the acquisition of lands by aliens in 
all the territories over which the United States has jurisdiction. 

Senator Plumb had been anxious for some years to 
make a general revision of the public land laws. They 
contained many obsolete or outgrown statutes. New 
conditions required many provisions not in the laws or 
the discretion of the administrative officers of the Gov- 
ernment. William S. Holman, of Indiana, introduced 
in the House and had passed a bill repealing the act 
of June 3, 1878, providing for the sale of timber lands 
in the Pacific States. This bill was referred to the 
Senate Committee on Public Lands. Plumb brought in 
as a substitute, the first draft of a bill embodying his 
ideas of a general revision of the land laws. After a 
free discussion it was modified in some parts and framed 
into a bill of twenty-four sections. It repealed the old 
preemption law ; also the timber-culture laws, which had 
not benefited the country as had been expected. It 
materially modified the conditions under which desert 
lands might be secured. The most liberal provisions 
were made for the irrigation of arid lands; canals and 
ditches were to have right of way over the public lands 
and even over claims the title to which had not passed 
from the Government. Authority for the construction 
of dams and reservoirs was given. The foundation of 
the vast irrigation projects now completed and under 
way in the Western and Northwestern States is found 
in this bill. The public lands were reserved for actual 
settlers, no one to have more than 160 acres of the same. 
Procedure in the courts was defined and prescribed in 
any suit to determine title to lands to be secured from 
the Government. Sales of abandoned military reserva- 
tions and of mineral lands at auction was prohibited. 



3G2 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

The manner of .acquiring town-sites in Alaska was 
defined, and primitive laws applying to the public 
lands there enacted. The Pribilof Islands, the breeding 
grounds of the fur-bearing seals, were reserved from sale. 
The propagation and protection of salmon in the Pacific- 
Coast waters were provided for. Beservations for some 
of the Alaskan Indians were set apart, and the statutes 
concerning some of the Osage lands were amended and 
made definite. 

And above all, the law under which, our forest reserva- 
tions have been established was enacted as section 
twenty-four of the bill. Because of its wise provisions 
there are now forest reservations about the head-waters 
of most Western streams. Timber from these reserva- 
tions may be sold to settlers and miners. Under this 
section the area of the Yellowstone National Park has 
been increased until it now contains more than 17,000 
square miles, the greatest park in the world belonging 
to the people. 

In fact, as before stated, this bill was the beginning 
of the conservation movement in America. 

A constructive statesman is one who has the power' 
to look far into the future and discern in that dim dis- 
tance what the people of unfolding time will require;; 
one with that humanity which takes into account the 
welfare of those coming generations; and one with the 
ability, standing and influence in his day to secure the 
enactment of those requirements into law and does it 

4 For the full text of this law see Appendix A. 



4 



CILATTEE LIX 

THE TARIFF 

To the close of his life Senator Plumb was a pro- 
tectionist. 1 He was not an extremist. The events of his 
life had developed every tendency to conservatism. He 
was the product of the frontier, however, and the 
frontier was ever the mother of democracy. Men there 
are thrown upon their own resources. On the line of 
the advance-guard of civilization it is the man that 
counts. The question is not so much whence he came 
as what he can do. The weak or timid man rarely seeks 
the frontier. Conquest is made by the strong. In 
America pioneer society has usually been an associa- 
tion of superior characters. Broad sympathy develops. 
Classes of society do not exist. The sick are not sent 
to hospitals, but are attended by neighbors. The dead 
are not buried by undertakers, but by settlers who them- 
selves make the coffins and dig the graves. Houses are 
erected by the community en masse, and not by skilled 
workmen as a class. Class distinctions do not appear 
until the wilderness has been conquered, civilization 
firmly seated, and a surplus of capital produced, the use 
of which effects a division of labor. The development 
of all our West began along agricultural lines. Com- 
merce, at first, had the simple task of supplying the 
needs of a growing agricultural community. To this 



i June 0, 1890, he said in his speech in the Senate : " I am a pro- 
tectionist I have believed that protection meant (lie giving of value 
to any product the result of American labor on American soil." Note 
that he said " American labor," not foreign labor " on American soil." 

363 



364 TIIE LIFE OP PRESTON B. PLUMB 

condition there was imposed in Kansas, that unusual 
duty to humanity, the destruction of slavery and the 
liberation of all labor, white and black. At the close 
of the Civil War such progress had been made in Kansas 
that the building of railroads began. The presence of 
these further stimulated the production of grain and 
live-stock. Settlers came in by thousands. In thirty 
years the American frontier was well-nigh obliterated. 
Such another era of city building and farm-opening 
never was — never again can be in America. Com- 
merce broadened. An infinite variety of manufactured 
articles became necessary. The manufacturers on the 
eastern seaboard grew rich by supplying this demand, 
and the industrial trend of our country was so modified 
as to affect all commercial tendencies. This was soon 
reflected in our political institutions, and in the papers 
of that time we read much about the " home market '' 
and of " trading with ourselves." Under pretense of 
protection to American labor enormous duties were laid. 
Once in control of the market, manufacturers arbi- 
trarily fixed prices, and the West paid heavy tribute to 
the East. 

Agricultural products are sold in a world-market, and 
tariffs cannot " protect " them. Neither can tariffs 
" protect " labor, which also has to be sold in a world- 
market. Specious arguments to the contrary, however, 
made these commodities appear the beneficiaries of pro- 
tection, until in 1890 higher duties Avere imposed than 
had been laid by the tariff made to carry on the Civil 
War. 2 Plumb had accepted the policy of his party with 
the best graces he could command. He was always 
willing that American labor should have protection if 
such a thing could be given; yet he saw foreign labor 



2 See colloquy in Conpres^ional Record between Senators Sherman 
ami McPherson, July 25, 1890. Sherman evaded the charge by point- 
ing to an enlarged "free-list" of manufactured articles and coin- 
modities not produced in tiiis country, among them tea and coffee. 



THE TARIFF 365 

pouring in. There was no tariff against it — no duty 
on it. This labor was ever in competition with Ameri- 
can labor. It came from French-Canada and filled New- 
England shops and mills. It came from Austria, Po- 
land, Italy and filled the mines and built the railroads. 
It came from Britain, France and Germany and manned 
the shops and forges. It was argued that these people 
became American citizens. Some of them did. They 
brought with them lower standards of life than those 
observed by Americans, and it nearly always happened 
that when one of them got a job some American work- 
man lost his place. 

Every country must have a tariff because it must 
have revenue. Senator Plumb combatted the fallacies 
proclaimed to justify the lengths to which our tariff 
policy had led us. If there was any modicum of " pro- 
tection w which might in some way accrue to American 
labor he was more than willing that it should be im- 
posed. Beyond this he would not go. He could not see 
the justice of it; and he saw the injustice of it every 
day. The West bought enormous quantities of highly 
protected articles — shoes, clothing, woolen goods, cot- 
ton cloth, wire, nails, tools, agricultural implements, 
and many others. It sold wheat, oats, corn, potatoes, 
cattle, horses, hogs, eggs, poultry, and other products of 
the ranch and the farm, the prices of which were made 
in world-markets. Speaking of these conditions as early 
as 1883 3 Senator Plumb said : 

We ought to consider the men who raise the grain. We do 
not do it except in an indirect way. The tariff upon wheat and 
upon various agricultural products is not protection. No farmer 
ever asked for it; no farmer ever received one single dime on 
account of it. The Senator from Michigan in his argument on 
Saturday, appealed to the people whom I in part represent here, 
in that he said the lumber-producing regions of the country 



a January 22. See Congressional Record, Forty-seventh Congress, 
Second Session, pp. 1443, et seq. 



366 TUE LIFE OP TRESTON B. PLUMB 

use four or five million dollars' worth of agricultural products, 
and he said those products were protected to the agriculturists 
of Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska by a duty of 20%, and he said 
in effect that if we are to have the 20% protection we ought 
not to begrudge the equivalent protection which was accorded 
to the lumber interest. 

Mr. President, I am willing, so far as I am concerned, as 
representing an agricultural people, to say that if there shall 
be a general reduction of 20% all around, or an equivalent re- 
duction upon manufactured articles, the agriculturists of Kansas, 
at least, will be perfectly willing to forego the 20% protection 
upon their wheat. In fact their protection amounts to nothing. 
The wheat of Kansas goes abroad in competition with the wheat 
of Russia and the wheat of India, competing in the great wheat- 
market of the world, Liverpool, and finding there no protection 
and no advantage growing out of the assumed protection which 
is given to it by the tariff laws of the United States. . . . Prac- 
tically speaking, the tariff is put upon wheat, upon corn, and 
upon various other agricultural products simply as a disguise, 
simply to make the agricultural people of the United States 
believe that the tariff by its term protects them while protect- 
ing the manufacturing interests of the country. Such is not the 
case. . . . 

We have been engaged, as it seems to me, in the consideration 
of this question from the basis of the direct interest of a 
minority of the people of the United States. Seven-tenths of 
the people of the United States are engaged in agriculture. 
Probably not more than one-tenth of the people of the United 
States are directly engaged in manufacturing. It does not 
seem to me proper, it certainly is not, looking at this matter 
from a permanent standpoint, when we disregard wholly every- 
thing except the question as to whether the people who are 
engaged in manufacturing can get out of it the profit they want 
for their capital. . 

Under the guise not only of an enactment for the protection 
of wheat, but under an appeal made in the very eloquent tones 
and terms of the Senator from Michigan, the people of Kansas 
are abjured to be willing to pay $2 a thousand more for lumber 
in order that their sight may be tickled by the spectacle of a 
protection of 20% ad valorem upon the wheat which they send 
to Chicago and from Chicago to Liverpool, competing in the 
Liverpool market against the slave labor as well as all the other 
labor of Ihe world. It will not do, Mr. President. I have no 
doubt that I fairly represent the people of Kansas when I say 



THE TARIFF 367 

that they are willing to look, and do look at this question from 
the basis of protection; that they do not want free; trade as it 
is ordinarily termed, but they do want that every single thing 
upon which a duty is put shall be subject to scrutiny, a scrutiny 
to determine whether it is necessary that the protection should 
be accorded to that particular interest in order that it may live 
and have a profit. They do not want that anything should be 
cut down in a destructive way ; they do not want a factory closed ; 
they want labor and capital employed to have a fair return ; 
but they reject utterly and entirely, as I believe, all this talk 
that the higher the duty the lower the price, and reject the idea 
that there is any rule or plan which runs through the wholo 
tariff business and which can be applied to everything and which 
assumes that protection is necessary upon everything irrespective 
of climate, of condition, and which as they believe, has resulted 
to some extent heretofore in giving to special industries profits 
to which they are not entitled, while it has not yielded a pro- 
portional profit to the product of the soil. . . . 

If it is simply a question of revenue, why shall we not add 
revenue upon the luxuries of life? "Why not put it upon the 
silks, the wines, the jewelry, and the high-priced articles gener- 
ally, and take it off from the necessaries of life if it is only 
revenue we want ? But we are led by gentlemen like the Senator 
from Maine (Mr. Frye) who says that he is in favor of protec- 
tion irrespective of revenue. This tariff, it seems to me, is 
fashioned too much upon a cast-iron adherence to the doctrine 
that protection itself is a good thing, found wherever it may be; 
no matter what it is, the moment anything comes in sight that 
anvbody may bring into the country, put a tariff upon it for 
want of a better place to put it. I think we ought, instead of 
that, to consult and see whether we cannot impose it upon the 
articles of luxury, diminish the price of things that are articles 
of necessity so far as possible, and then adjust the revenues of 
the country upon the shoulders that are best able to bear it, and 
not put it upon those things which people are obliged to have, 
and by reason of the very obligation to have them make the 
burden of their purchase and of the duties upon those articles 
that much greater. 

The position of Senator riunib was the position of 
the people of the West, for no other man ever took so 
much trouble to determine exactly what public senti- 
ment really was on matters of general interest. The 



368 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. TLUMB 

attitude of the West towards the tariff remained the 
same during his time, and, in fact, it has remained the 
same to this day. On every occasion demanding an ex- 
pression on the subject he affirmed and emphasized his 
position. He engaged actively in the debates in the 
Senate on the Mills Tariff Bill in 1888 and 1889. He 
made the same appeal on behalf of the people. The 
whole subject of the tariff was reviewed by him. For 
many months he gave it profound attention. He con- 
cluded that our manner of making tariffs was wrong. 
He believed that Congress was groping in the dark and 
that any bill it passed was the result of the influence 
of manufacturers and the trading of representatives of 
various interests and sections of the country. That 
Congress might have some scientific basis for future 
action he introduced an amendment to the Mills Bill 
providing for a Customs Commission 4 with much power 
and authority, whose duty it should be to thoroughly in- 
vestigate the whole tariff question and report its find- 
ings to Congress. The amendment was in the form of 
additional sections, as follows: 

Sec. 44. That a commission is hereby created and established 
in the Treasury Department, to be known as the customs com- 
mission, to be composed of five commissioners to be appointed 
by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the 
Senate. The Commissioners first appointed under this act shall 
continue in office two, three, four, five and six years, respectively, 
from the date of their respective appointments, the term of 
each to be designated by the President, but their successors shall 
lie appointed for terms of six years, except that any person 
chosen to fill a vacancy shall be appointed only for the un- 



4 Senator Eaton, of Connecticut, and Senator Morrill, of Vermont, 
introduced Tariff Commission bills long before Plumb introduced bis. 
But the Commission conceived by Plumb was different from its prede- 
cessors. It was In the interest of the people. Ultimately it was to 
manage tli«> tariff under the direction of Congress. It was to take the 
tariff out of politics. It was to consider the revenue requirements of 
the Government and the foreign trade of our country, as well as pro- 
tection to American interests. 



TIIE TARIFF 309 

expired term of the commissioner whom he shall succeed. Any 
commissioner may be removed by the President for inefficiency, 
neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office. No more than three 
of the commissioners shall be appointed from the same political 
party. No person engaged in importing merchandise into the 
United States, and no person engaged in manufactures, or who 
is in any manner pecuniarily interested therein, shall hold such 
office. No vacancy in the commission shall impair the right 
of the remaining commissioners to exercise all the powers of 
the commission. The salary of such commissioners shall be 
at the rate of $7,500 per annum. They shall be entitled, in 
addition, to compensation for actual traveling and other neces- 
sary expenses in the discharge of their duties. They shall choose 
one of their own number to be President of the commission. 
They shall have power to employ a clerk, a stenographer, and a 
messenger, and with the approval of the Secretary of the Treas- 
ury, such other clerical assistance as shall be necessary to the 
performance of their duties, and at such rates of compensation 
as they may establish, with the approval of the Secretary of the 
Treasury. Their salaries, expenses, and the compensation of 
the clerk, stenographer, messenger and such additional clerical 
force as may be thus employed shall be paid out of any money 
in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, upon the auditing 
of the same, according to the usual course, in the Treasury 
Department. 

Sec. 45. That the commission shall establish its permanent 
office at the city of "Washington, where it shall be at all times, 
in the usual course of business, ready to hear or receive oral or 
written testimony upon all the specific subjects mentioned in 
the preceding sections of this act, and generally upon everything 
relating directly or indirectly to customs, duties and revenues. 

Sec. 46. That it shall be the duty of the said commission 
to examine into and ascertain the average price of commodities 
imported into the United States, both at wholesale and retail 
in the United States, and both in the United States and in the 
foreign place of production, sale, or shipment, for the period 
of six months preceding and six months following any change 
of the rate of customs duties imposed upon such commodities, 
and this inquiry shall be carried back for a period of twenty- 
five years, and more, if deemed advisable by such commission, 
and shall extend to all facts relating to demand and supply, 
domestic and foreign, which tend to influence prices of such 
commodities, foreign, and domestic, and to aid in determining 
the true effect of the import duty or of the change therein in 



370 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

the several cases, upon domestic and foreign prices and upon 
productions of the same or other commodities, upon revenue, 
upon immigration, upon profits of capital, rates of wages, and 
the general welfare. 

Second. To ascertain the amounts in quantity and value of 
the importation of the principal commodities during each of 
said periods of six months preceding and succeeding any such 
change in customs duties. 

Third. To ascertain, as far as practicable, the quantity and 
value of the same or similar commodities produced in the 
United States during the same respective periods. 

Fourth. To ascertain whether in any and what instances the 
particular rates of customs duties have operated to increase or 
diminish production in the United States. 

Fifth. To ascertain in what particulars rates of customs 
duties, existing from time to time, operate injuriously or favor- 
ably to the development and increase of American manufactures 
and productions, or operate injuriously or favorably to the con- 
sumers of such manufactured articles and productions in respect 
of causing or contributing to the payment of unreasonable prices 
by consumers, or the removal or reduction of the same. 

Sixth. To ascertain the effect of the customs duties upon the 
price of agricultural productions of the country and their sale 
in United States markets and their consumption in the United 
States. 

Seventh. To ascertain the effect of such customs duties, both 
actual and relative, in respect of the employment and payment 
of remunerative wages, both actual and relative, to labor in the 
United States, and a comparison of the same with the labor 
and wages in other countries. 

Eighth. To consider the effect of customs duties, or the 
absence of them, upon the agricultural, commercial, manufac- 
turing, mining and other industrial interests of the people in 
the United States. 

Ninth. To ascertain and compare the actual cost and the 
selling price, both at wholesale and retail, of similar manufac- 
tured commodities reduced to American weights, measures and 
money in the United States and elsewhere. 

Tenth. To ascertain the growth and development of the prin- 
cipal manufacturing industries affected by the tariff schedules 
in England, France, Germany, Belgium and the United States 
for the last twenty-five years; and to ascertain the relative cost 
of transportation in these countries and the United States. 

Sec. 47. That for the purpose of such inquiries and investi- 



TIIE TARIFF 371 

gations the commission may visit any part of the United Stale.-;, 
and by public notice or otherwise invite testimony and informa- 
tion from all persons interested. They may from time to time 
also delegate one of their number to visit foreign countries to 
make investigation respecting the labor and industries of those 
countries whenever such investigation may be necessary to pro- 
mote the objects of the commission, and they may require in- 
formation concerning the labor and industries of foreign coun- 
tries from consular or other agents of the United States in those 
countries, and such agents shall furnish the information so 
required promptly and without charge. 

Sec. 48. That the commission shall report its proceedings in 
respect of the matters hereinbefore in this act mentioned, with 
the statistics and evidence upon which its report is based to- 
gether with recommendations for changes in customs duties 
which they may deem advisable and necessary, and the ground 
upon which its conclusions concerning such changes have been 
reached, to Congress in the month of December in each year. 
It shall cause the testimony and statistics taken and obtained in 
respect of the matters in this act mentioned to be printed from 
time to time and distributed to members of Congress by the 
Public Printer, and also shall cause to be printed for the use of 
Congress 2000 copies of its annual report, together with statistics 
and testimony hereinbefore mentioned. It is hereby made the 
duty of the Public Printer to execute the printing provided for 
in this act. 

This amendment proposed radical changes from the 
old tariff commission idea. 5 It was intended that the 
Customs Commission should be of vast aid to the Gov- 
ernment. And though the Mills Bill failed the fame of 
this amendment survives. It embodies those funda- 



b The following is taken from the Few York Sun: 

Speaking the other day of the amendment providing for a Tariff 
Commission, which Senator riumb tacked on to the tariff bill, a 
prominent Senator said : " There is not another man in that chamber 
who could have secured the adoption of that amendment, but when 
Plumb proposed it, it went through unanimously and with little or no 
debate. The reason is that we have confidence in his good practical 
judgment and honesty." There are few matters of importance 
brought before the Senate upon which Senator Plumb does not express 
his views, and they are generally approved by a majority of his 
colleagues. 



372 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

mental principles which must live. On the 3d of July, 
1909, Senator Dolliver introduced the Plumb amendment 
to the Mills Bill as an amendment to the Payne Tariff 
Bill, and in its introduction paid a splendid tribute to 
the statemanship of Senator Plumb : 

I confess it is only in these later years that the extent of the 
task laid upon Congress in a general revision of the tariff has 
dawned upon me. I confess, also, that a good many of the illu- 
sions of other years have faded away. ... I never wish to see 
American business put through another such sweat as it has 
enjoyed during the present summer. I believe I share with 
everyone who does me the honor to listen to me to-day, a dim 
conviction, at least, that in undertaking in the course of ninety 
days to deal with the entire business of this market place, the 
Congress of the United States had taken upon itself an impos- 
sible task. The result of all this is that our work is not well 
done. A moral fruitage of it is that nobody has any confidence 
in our work. I do not intimate that Congress has not tried 
to do the very best that could be done. But in the very nature 
of the case, dealing with multiplied thousands of business enter- 
prises, with few of us personally familiar by experience and 
actual contact with these affairs, I confess that with all the zeal 
and with all the skill Congress has been able to exhibit, we 
have fallen very far short of giving the manufacturers and other 
interests of the United States a fair and just consideration of 
the things that concern them. 

This is not the only time such feelings have arisen in the 
minds of Senators. In 1888, after the Mills Bill had been sent 
to the Senate, the Finance Committee entered upon a very 
elaborate effort to write a substitute for the Mills Bill. ... At 
the end of their labors they produced a bill which was so per- 
suasive in reaching the good will of the American people that, I 
think, I do not misstate the truth of history in saying that its 
popularity was universal, at least within the ranks of the Ke- 
publican party throughout the country. It was the measure 
upon which General Harrison made his campaign for Presi- 
dent. . . . 

At that session of the Senate a very famous and honored states- 
man, now gone to his reward, Preston B. Plumb, of Kansas, pre- 
pared, I am advised, under the general counsel of the experts 
connected with the Finance Committee, although he was not a 
member of that Committee, a measure intended to relieve Con- 



THE TAUIFF 373 

gross of the intolerable load cast upon the legislative department 
of the Government, in an effort to revise the tariff laws. II.' 
introduced into the Senate the proposition which I have just 
had read from the Secretary's desk. It was referred to the 

[Committee on Finance; and when the tariff bill came up for 
final consideration it was offered by Senator Plumb as an amend- 
ment. It was accepted by my former colleague, Senator Alli- 
son, agreed to without a dissenting voice on the Republican side 

I of this Chamber — or, so far as the record indicates, on the 
Democratic side. 6 

In Washington, May 16, 1910, Senator Dolliver, on 
the north portico of the Capitol, up and clown which 
he walked told the writer of Senator Plumb. He said : 

Plumb was a pure diamond in the rough — strong, rugged, 
honest, caring little for personal appearance, and having in mind 
the accomplishment of his purposes. He was a far-seeing man — 
a statesman. He looked far into the future and had the power 
to discern the scandals bound to be the outgrowth of our manner 
of handling the tariff question; and he sought to correct our 
methods. He was a believer in the protective tariff, as his party 
has ever been, but he saw that our manner of treating it, espe- 
cially in the enactment of its schedules, would ultimately break 
down and perhaps destroy it. In theory Congress is supposed to 
determine the tariff schedules. The practice is to allow the 
beneficiaries of the tariff — the manufacturers — to write the 
•schedules. This Senator Plumb believed to be scandalous and 
immoral — if, indeed, not criminal. He believed it wholly in- 
defensible even from a party standpoint. 

Having in mind these principles, and having the good of his 
country at heart, he sought to remedy the evil of which he was 
convinced. He believed the gravest consequences would follow 
upon the continuance of our methods. To avert these he de- 

>vised a complete system to supplant our old one. His plan 
consisted of a commission, non-partisan in character, which 

i would have charge of the tariff and arrange its schedules in the 
interest of the Government and the people as a people. He 
made an exhaustive study of the matter and was completely in- 
formed. His plan was comprehensive — the work of a patriot 
and statesman. He introduced it into the Senate as an amend- 
ment to the Mills Bill. So masterly was his support of it that 

lit was unanimously adopted by the Senate. 

6 Congressional Record, July 3, 1909, pp. 4086-87. 



374 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

Last venr, in the discussion of the tariff, I cast about for what 
had been done in the enactment of previous bills and fell upon 
Plumb's plan. At first I thought it had been the work of 
Allison, Iowa's great Senator, but found that it was the concep- 
tion of Plumb. I introduced it into the Senate as an amend- 
ment to the Payne Bill, and it came within three votes of being 
adopted. Had it been adopted we, as a people, would now be 
enjoying complete prosperity, and our party would not have been 
placed in the impracticable position in which we find it. This 
was the highest point attained by Plumb in his long and useful 
career in the Senate. His fame as a statesman will finally rest 
upon it. His plan will have to be adopted. It will be adopted. 
The thing which we got in the Pa}Tie Bill in lieu of it is prac- 
tically of little benefit; it does not partake of the strong and 
perfect institution devised by Plumb. 

Because of dissensions in the Democratic membership 
of the House the Mills Bill did not become a law. The 
succeeding Congress had a Republican majority and a 
tariff bill was introduced in the House by William 
McKinley. In framing his bill Mr. McKinley gave 
hearings to manufacturers. Senator Plumb attended 
some of these hearings and improved every opportunity 
to talk with these manufacturers and their representa- 
tives. He even visited mills and factories where he 
talked with workmen and overseers. The whole sub- 
ject of the tariff was again reviewed by him. The re- 
sult was that he was firmly fixed in the accuracy of his 
judgment in moving for a Customs Commission in the 
Mills Bill. He was convinced of the wisdom of that 
measure, and he resolved to offer it as an amendment 
to the McKinley Bill, which he did, and it was adopted 
in Committee of the Whole, by a vote of 31 to 30. It 
passed the Senate by a vote of 31 to 29. The nouse did 
not agree to the Senate Amendments, and a Committee 
of Conference omitted most of them, including that for 
a Customs Commission. The bill as framed by McKin- 
ley gave undue advantage to the manufacturers. It 
was ('specially unjust to the West. As modified by the 



THE TABIFE 375 

Committee of Conference it was still more objection- 
able. Senator Pluinb could not approve it — and he 

voted against the McKinley Bill, as did Senators Pad- 
flock and Pettigrew. 7 

The Customs Commission was ultimately to be given 
enlarged powers. The amendments to the Mills and 
McKinley Bills did not disclose all that Senator Plumb 
had in mind on the subject. The author has been told 
more than once by the late Eugene P. Ware, who was 
for many years on intimate terms with Senator Plumb, 
that these amendments were intended as a beginning. 
Power was to be given the Commission to make rates 
of duty under certain conditions. Based on the find- 
ings of the Committee, Congress was to fix maximum 
and minimum rates. As conditions changed at home 
or abroad the rate might be changed by the Commis- 
sion, within the bounds set by Congress, to conform to 
these conditions. This feature was to be introduced 
after the Commission was firmly established as a per- 
manent institution. Senator Plumb was not convince I 
that the establishment of maximum and minimum rates 



7 Ex-Senator Pettigrew of South Dakota, said to the author : 
Senator Plumb had been working on a tariff commission plan for 
some years prior to this time and had offered it in the Senate. He 
had given the matter much thought and hard study. He was 
familiar with the workings of the whole scheme of our Government. 
It was a scientific plan to raise the revenue necessary for the support 
of the Government accurately adjusted to all needs of the Govern- 
ment. Plumb, Paddock and I studied the McKinley Bill with care 
and worked long and hard to correct its evils by the formation of a 
Tariff Commission along lines worked out by Plumb. Failing to 
secure the authority for this Commission by a provision in the bill, 
we considered it our duty to vote against the bill with its monstrous 
crimes against the people. And we did vote against it. 

This vote was the supreme test of the loyalty of Senator Plumb to 
the interest of the people. When it was possible for him t.> do so In- 
voted for the measures and policies of his party. He had groat 
influence in the Senate and stood high in councils of his party. But 
none of these things nor all of them, counted when his duty to the 
people was put into the balance. Plumb was an honest man. 



376 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

could be legally accomplished, nor that power could be 
conferred on a Commission to fix rates in these bounds. 
He inclined to the opinion that these things might be 
legally clone, and he submitted the matter to Mr. Ware, 
who was a lawyer in whose judgment he had confi- 
dence. It was the conclusion of Mr. Ware that the 
position of Senator Plumb was within the rights of Con- 
gress and would be upheld by the Supreme Court of 
the United States. 

A few days before his death Senator Plumb intro- 
duced a bill for the establishment of a permanent Cus- 
toms Commission. It was one of the last acts of his 
life. 



CHAPTER LX 

SUGAR 

Sugar is necessary to the existence of man. It is a 
natural ingredient of various articles of his food, but in 
this form it is not present in quantities sufficient to 
satisfy the requirements of the refined taste of civili- 
zation. It must be furnished as a separate article. To 
meet this want man has developed in certain plants 
abnormal proportions of sugar substances. To extract, 
manufacture, and refine these substances into sugar are 
among the great enterprises of mankind. The fact that 
these plants can be grown only in restricted areas en- 
ables those engaged in the manufacture of sugar to lay 
heavy tribute on the people of most countries. And it 
follows that the discovery of a sugar-producing plant 
which might grow in more rigorous climates and over 
wider areas would mean the extension of industry and 
enterprise and the reduction in cost of one of the neces- 
saries of life. 

In the sorghum plant Senator Plumb sought those 
possibilities. This plant grows well in most parts of 
the United States, and it bears a large percentage of 
sugar-producing substances. It has been grown in 
America more than a century. It has a flavor not found 
in true sugar cane and which is not generally relished. 
To eliminate this taste and overcome some difficulties 
which the sugar presents in the process of refining 
would make the manufacture of the highest grades of 
sugar common to all parts of the United States. 

When Plumb started his paper at Emporia he began 

377 



378 THE LIFE OF PEESTON B. PLUMB 

an agitation for the manufacture of sugar from sor- 
ghum. In Kansas lie was a pioneer in this field. He 
believed the climate and soil of Kansas peculiarly 
adapted to the production of sorghum. His articles de- 
scribed its virtues and urged its cultivation. It is one 
of the things which he never gave up. When he went 
to the Senate he kept the matter in mind. He did not 
fail to urge on the people of Kansas the importance of 
developing the industry. By the year 1880 attempts 
were made to manufacture sugar from sorghum, and in 
1884 there were a number of factories in Kansas en- 
gaged in the business. The capital invested then 
amounted to f 190,000. The State offered a small bounty 
on the sugar produced, and in 1890 the bounty amounted 
to $27,438.* 

In 1884 the United States Government appropriated, 
through the efforts of Senator Plumb, the sum of $50,- 
000 to carry on experiments for improving the processes 
of manufacture, and the results were satisfactory. He 
asked for the same amount in 1885, and in support of 
the measure said that about 600,000 pounds of mer- 
chantable sugar had been produced in Kansas the pre- 
ceding year. He exhibited some of it and said : 

I have here a sample of what is called "A" sugar, made by 
the ordinary process, and which I should be glad to have every 
Senator who has any interest in this matter examine and taste 
for himself, in order to see that sugar made from sorghum, what- 
ever it may have been heretofore, is absolutely free from any 
anti-saccharine substance, from anything which to the taste 
characterizes it as different from the ordinary sugar, as can be 



i Two cents a pound. Act of the Legislature of March 5, 1S87. 
See the reports of the State Board of Agriculture for these years. 
E. B. Cowglll made the first report of real value on the snhject of 
BUgar from sorghum, and it is published there. The Secretary of the 
Board savs the BUgar was of good quality but not quite white, and 
thai if retained some of the flavor of the cane from which it was 
derived. This was the sugar made by the factories for general sale, 
not that produced by the Government experts. 



SUGAR 379 

imagined. It is as good in every respect and has taken its place 
alongside of the best article manufactured out of the Louisiana 
cane, and has met every expectation of both seller and consume!'. 

He explained the progress which had been made in 
the installation of improved machinery and the stages 
of manufacture and refining of sugar. He declared 
that |100,000,000 worth of sugar was imported annually 
at that time, saying that it was a subject of great im- 
portance to discover and develop in some way some 
means of supplying this deficiency in the home produc- 
tion. He caused to be read the report of Professor 
Swenson, one of the Government experts, which said 
that " the past season's work has fully proven that a 
first-class sugar can be made from sorghum cane. The 
possibility of making as good an article of sugar from 
this source as from Southern cane or sugar beet may be 
considered a settled fact." 2 

Speaking in 1S89 of the progress made with sorghum 
sugar Plumb said that what was known as " C " sugar 
could be produced by the factories without additional 
refining, and that this sugar would be made by small 
factories scattered over the areas which produced the 
cane, which it was impracticable to transport long dis- 
tances. 

Through the effort of Senator Plumb it was demon- 
strated that as good sugar could be made from sorghum 
as from the true sugar cane, and that it could be pro- 
duced at a cost small enough to put it in competition 
with the sugars of beets and cane. 3 Doctor Wiley says 
of the Senator: 

I knew Senator Plumb quite intimately from 1885 to 1889 



2 See Congressional Record, Second session, 4Sth Congress, pp. 2131, 
et seq. 

3 In a letter to B. Rockwell. Junction City, Kansas, December 27, 
1890. Senator Plumb expressed tbe belief that sugar could be made 
for three cents a pound and even for two and a half cents a pound. 



3S0 TIIE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

during the time that I was engaged in experimenting in Kansas 
in the production of sugar from sorghum. Senator Plumb was 
the one who secured the appropriations, and they were of a 
generous nature. The sorghum industry never had a better nor 
more active friend than Senator Plumb. It was through him 
that the money was given with which to carry on the experiments 
at Fort Scott, at Ottawa, at Medicine Lodge and other localities 
in Kansas. All together, in the course of six or seven years, the 
Department expended on these experiments probably between 
a quarter and a half-million dollars, a large part of which was 
spent at Fort Scott and Medicine Lodge. In connection with 
these manufacturing experiments, cultural experiments were car- 
ried on in Kansas with the collaboration of the late A. A. Denton. 
Senator Plumb also took a lively interest in this part of the 
work. The appropriation bill for many years carried the specific 
appropriations for these experimental investigations, and while 
others in Congress were interested in the matter, Senator Plumb 
was always the leader. You can give him full credit for being 
the leading man in securing the legislation. 4 

So much, encouraged with the results of these ex- 
periments was Senator Plumb that lie believed the in- 
dustry of making sugar from sorghum was achieved and 
fully established. To a representative of a Kansas City 
paper in 1887 he said : 

I shall not be surprised if within five years Kansas is able 
to manufacture from sorghum all the sugar necessary to supply 
her own citizens, and I have little doubt but that within ten 
years the United States will manufacture from this source all 
the sugar necessary for home consumption. 5 

It is much more than probable that the sugar prob- 
lem in the United States would have been solved had 
Senator Plumb lived to the end of his third term. 



* Letter to the author, October 19, 11)11. 
5 Kansas City Times. 



CHAPTER LXI 

NEWSPAPERS 

When Plumb went out of the newspaper business he 
did not lose interest in the profession. Between bat- 
tles in Northwest Arkansas in the Civil War he pub- 
lished Buck & Ball. A printer was hailed as a brother, 
and the woes of the old tramp typo never failed of al- 
leviation when they came to his knowledge. He under- 
stood newspapers and the men who made them. To 
the end of his life he looked to the papers as the best 
source of information of events and conditions. And 
he relied most on the local papers. He said to Walter 
Wellman, w T ho went once to interview him : 

I believe in the local newspapers. They are the leaders, the 
makers of public sentiment. They are nearer to the people than 
any other paper. Their editors mingle with the people, and 
consciously or unconsciously reflect the views of their readers. 

By my private letters from all parts of the State, and by read- 
ing the local papers, I can tell just what the people of Kansas 
are thinking and talking about. I can feel the pulse of the 
people and take their temperature. I am amazed, too, at the 
excellence of our country papers. The majority of them are 
carefully, ably edited. They not only print the news of neigh- 
borhood, but have opinions which I find it worth while to read 
and reflect upon. I get no better return for any of the money 
which I spend than for that which I pay out for local newspapers 
of my State. 

One of Plumb's friends visited him in Washington 
once and found him going through the Kansas news- 
papers. The last entry made in his notes was to the 
effect that the editor of the paper at Blue Mound (a vil- 

381 



382 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

lage in Linn County) had said so and so in Ms last 
issue. The incident shows with what great care he 
read the papers. 

B. J. Sheridan, of Paola, editor of the Spirit, of that 
town, called on Plumb at his office in Washington. 
Plumb grasped his hand and exclaimed, " How are you, 
Barney! I see the paper at Louisburg (then a cross- 
roads village, east of Paola) is going after you red- 
headed!" Plumb had noticed in the columns of tho. J 
little paper the vials of the wrath of its editor poured 
out on Sheridan. " He reads a newspaper like the ex- 
change editor of a great daily," said Wellman. " His 
typewriter operator opens the papers and spreads them 
out on his desk, and when the Senator goes at them they 
disappear at the rate of three a minute. A rapid glance 
finishes one page, and a second glance another. But 
nothing of interest escapes his quick eyes." Continu- 
ing, Wellman says: 

Senator Plumb, who has been unusually conspicuous of late 
on account of his independent attitude on the Tariff Bill, is 
one of the busiest men in Congress. I have watched him for a 
long time, and I have never seen him idle. He lives at the 
Shoreham Hotel, but keeps a " den " on Fourteenth Street, 
near the newspaper offices. This den, which is a curiosity in its 
way, the Senator enters regularly every morning at eight o'clock. 
For two hours he does nothing but sit there, with his Western 
slouch hat upon his head, reading newspapers. He is the most 
omnivorous newspaper reader I know of. 

He takes all the New York papers, several from Chicago, one 
from Philadelphia, and perhaps a dozen dailies from other large 
cities. Three daily papers from Kansas City and two from 
St. Louis reach his office regularly. There are magazines and 
weekly publications by the score. But the bulk of the Senator's 
newspaper mail comes from li is own State. He is a subscriber 
to every paper in Kansas. As there are about eight hundred of 
them, many of them published daily, it is easy to see that 
Senator Plumb has his hands full. 

Walter B. Stevens, of the St. Louis 'lobe-Democrat, 



NEWSPAPERS 383 

was lon^ at Washington. lie came to know Senator 
Plumb intimately. Stevens was one of the big news- 
paper men of Plumb's time, and wrote of him : 

He rents double parlors on Fourteenth Street, near the hotels, 
at one of which he takes his meals. The front parlor looks 
about as much like a newspaper office as the Senator tan make 
it. He plants a big desk, with a high back, in the center of 
the room. His mail contains as many newspapers as it did 
when he had a big " exchange list/' As often as the old inclina- 
tion comes over him he goes through a bushel or two of these 
papers in a way to awaken a news editor's admiration. He runs 
his forefinger under the wrapper, glances over the first page, and 
has the inside spread out while another Senator would be study- 
ing the postmark. The high desk is opposite the door. When 
a visitor knocks he is greeted with a genuine Kansas " Come 
in ! " He opens the door. The Senator raises his head, glances 
over the top of his desk, and says, "How are you?" cheerily, 
and goes on with his work. 

Mr. Plumb is the only statesman in Washington who can dis- 
pose of caller after caller with results entirely satisfactory all 
round and at the same time go on reading letters and papers; 
revising speeches or dictating to a private secretary. lie never 
does less than two things at once. He has a record of sustain- 
ing his part of an interview for the Globe-Democrat, while actu- 
ally engaged in getting into a refractory dress-shirt for a White 
House reception, which is a pretty good illustration of his mental 
comprehensiveness. Any statesman can go on with work and 
freeze out a visitor. But Senator Plumb is the rare exception 
who can go on with work and at the same time make his visitor 
feel entirely at home and satisfied witli his reception. 

The first thing a Washington landlady has to learn about 
Senator Plumb is that under no consideration must a paper or 
book in his room be moved. The next lesson is not to mind a 
slam of the front door, which can be heard from basement to 
attic, when he comes in or goes out. But these two lessons are 
all. He is a model lodger. 

Before Captain Henry King became editor of the 
Globe-Democrat he was many years editor of the Topeka 
Commonwealth and knew Tlunib well. Captain King 
said : 

Plumb never ceased to be a newspaper man. To the end of 



3S4 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

his life he was primarily and first of all a newspaper man. He 
knew the news and how it should be served up. He knew that 
newspapers usually told the truth and could be depended on to 
do the right thing. He read all the Kansas papers and many 
others. He also read everything new in the way of books. 
This is why he was always the best informed man in the Senate. 
And being the best informed, he was the most powerful man in 
the Senate. 

Plumb never failed to stop at the Globe-Democrat office when 
in St. Louis, even if only between trains. And he was a familiar 
figure in the newspaper offices in Chicago and New York. 
Plumb was a favorite with newspaper men. He knew and 
trusted them and no doubt many of them were told weeks in 
advance that information of some great event would be ready 
to be given out by a certain time, and it is not now recalled 
that he was ever betrayed by the publication of the intelligence 
before the proper date. 

Colonel John C. Carpenter, one of the founders of 
Chanute, was a stanch friend of Senator Plumb and 
often visited him at Washington. Among the rich store 
of incidents detailed by him none are more interesting 
than that of how Plumb read the newspapers : 

I have seen Plumb in his room at work many times. He 
would have a stack of newspapers, as many as would conveniently 
lie on top of a large table. He would be sitting there, opening 
papers and glancing through them and talking to you all the 
while. I have seen him go through a hundred and tell the local 
transactions of all the counties in Kansas. He scanned the 
columns, caught the idea and went on. If at any time you 
made reference to anything that had happened in a certain 
county he would say, " Yes, I saw that in the papers." While 
he was going through the papers he would keep up a conversation 
right along. It would not be continuous; there would be an 
interval of a few seconds, during which time he would absorb 
everything in the paper before him ; then he would take up the 
conversation where he had left off. I have wondered at him — 
wondered how he could in an instant grasp the news and hold it. 

Plumb aided many newspaper men. There are yet, 
perhaps, a good many papers in Kansas which were 
started with money borrowed from him. If the loca- 



NEWSPAPERS 385 

tion was good and the man competent and square he 
could always get from Plumb a portion of the money 
required to found his paper, or to pay part of the pur- 
chase money on one already established. lie aided 
Major Hudson more than once to keep the Topeka Daily 
Capital afloat. The money he put into newspapers was 
on loans only; he did not buy or take any interest in 
the papers. These loans were usually promptly paid. 



CHAPTER LXII 

HABITS AND CHARACTERISTICS 

The habits and characteristics of Senator Plumb 
were formed and developed in a youth of strenuous ef- 
fort to get forward in the world. They were the mani- 
festations of a strong individuality moved by a definite 
purpose and untiring industry. From childhood he 
was noted for enthusiasm. The most fortunate cir- 
cumstance of his life was that he was never constrained 
into self-consciousness. His mother, from whom he 
inherited his temperament, wisely fostered and en- 
couraged the sanguine fervency of his nature. His 
mental growth was natural and healthy, his chief dis- 
couragement being an environment somewhat barren of 
opportunity. But his native force enabled him to sur- 
mount the obstacles to his youthful progress. Those he 
encountered later in life did not appear so formidable, 
and they were usually overcome by confidence in his 
power and his capacity for work. The habits of such a 
man must of necessity be directed to the end of getting 
things done. The bearing of such a man is not always 
elegant, and his intercourse with associates must fre- 
quently partake of the brusque and the abrupt. The 
sympathetic nature of Senator Plumb saved him from 
the consequence of bitter hatreds and relentless feuds, 
such as wrecked the career of Conkling. He sometimes 
Buffered from this spirit in others, but he was incapable 
of retaliation in kind. lie had few enemies, perhaps 
none, to whom he would not have been reconciled as the 
result of advances made in good faith. 

Here are a few instances which illustrate the habits 

38G 



HABITS AND CHABACTEBISTICS 387 

and characteristics of Plumb. Eugene F. Ware called 
on Plumb in Washington. It was early in the. morning. 
He looked haggard and worn. lie told Ware that he 
had slept little for two or three nights and had missed 
most of his meals for a day or two, all because of work 
which he felt he must do and had just completed. lie 
felt depressed and believed his health might be giving 
way. They had been friends since army days, and 
Ware said, " This will never do, Senator, never in the 
world. I insist that you now surrender yourself into 
my hands and remain my prisoner a few days." 

Plumb thought he would not have time to do it, but 
Ware made him see that he must. Ware often visit cm 1 
the eastern shore of North Carolina for recreation, and 
now he and Plumb took the first train for that coast. 
There they fished. They rode through pine woods on 
horseback. They went up and down the inlets and bays. 
After an outing of a week they returned to Washington. 
Plumb's health and spirits were completely restored. 

A year or two later they made a trip to Charlottes- 
ville, Virginia, and visited Jefferson's home and grave. 
The exact date of this is preserved. Ware presented 
Plumb with an umbrella having a gold handle, and sent 
with it the following letter, which contains a definite 
reference to the Virginia outing: 

Washington, D. C, Jane 5, 1889. 
Dear Senator: 

While in Washington I have heard some little complaint as to 
the character of the umbrellas that you leave around in hat-racks 
and hall-ways, which comes from your pernicious habit of buying 
them by the pound. 

I send you one herewith with which you can sort of thicken 
up your former contributions to the general fund. I have put 
on the handle the date of May 10th which you will remember 
was the date we visited Monticello, as shown by the papers you 
bought of the newsboy. 1 

i When they got back to the train a newsboy sold IMumb a New 
York paper several days old. Plumb did not notice the date and 



388 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

Many incidents of Plumb's life in Kansas before his 
election to the Senate are lost. E. P. Harris, who 
worked under Plumb as a printer, on the Herald of 
Freedom, in the winter of 1856-7, says of him : 

Plumb was a good printer and a good foreman. He insisted 
on good work. He had unusual energy and was nervous, quick, 
always moving, saw everything and took note of it; and, on the 
street, walked at a sort of swinging gait that no one could keep 
up with. He seemed always short of time and in a hurry. He 
seemed never tired. He appeared not to think as other young 
fellows did. He took immense interest in passing events. There 
was always something on his mind about the future — some- 
thing he said nothing about — but which he was ever thinking 
and planning about. 

A. G. Proctor was one of the early merchants of Em- 
poria. Of Plumb at that time he recalls that, 

He was a lusty young fellow, rather rough in personal appear- 
ance, badly pock-marked, full of enthusiasm, in touch with all 
that was going on about there — just the make-up for the work 
he was engaged in. He was ready to help the preacher start a 
church, to be judge at the pony races Saturday afternoon, lend a 
hand at getting the timber on the ground for a school-house, go 
into an Indian fight on the Walnut, or fit in at any of the func- 
tions that grace or enliven frontier life. Emporia was close to 
the south line of the county. She must be the county-seat. As 
the town could not be moved, the county lines of that region had 
to be, to provide the geographical center. This was Plumb's 
first political job. He did it all right and Emporia became the 
county-seat. 

Once Senator Plumb went into the office of an Em- 
poria newspaper late at night. He was then trying to 
develop the sorghum sugar industry in Kansas. He sat 



read on and on for something new. Everything seemed old. He 
made some remark to Ware about the stale news he was finding. 
Then it occurred to them to examine the date, which they found to 
be May 10th, a week or more back. It became a matter of humorous 
reference between them and explains Ware's mention of it in his 
letter and In the inscription on the handle of the umbrella. 



HABITS AND CHARACTERISTICS 389 

down and wrote an editorial on the subject. It was 
quite long, and the editor said it could not all be set up 
in time for the paper to go to press and be out for the 
mails on the early trains. Plumb wanted the entire 
editorial in, so he took a " stick " and went to a " case/' 
where he set type for an hour or two, and the paper 
was out on time, and it contained all of the editorial. 

As showing the hearty good-will always existing be- 
tween Plumb and his neighbors, W. F. Shamleffer, of 
Council Grove, says that Plumb was cordial in manner, 
such a man as it did one good to talk to. He says Plumb 
has often slapped him on the back or thigh, while talking, 
with such force that he has felt it for a week ; but that 
he felt good every time the twinge caught him, for it re- 
called the good-fellowship and whole-souled w T ay of 
Plumb. 

" Plumb cut right into the heart of a matter and 
brushed aside any fallacies which might surround it," 
said P. I. Bonebrake, who was for many years closely 
identified with the business and politics of Kansas. He 
said that in any crowd which might gather on a street 
about a fire or other exciting event there would be many 
people content to stand on the edges and get what in- 
formation worked through the mass in front of them. 
Not so with Plumb. He always came up with a rush 
and elbowed and see-sawed his way to the center and 
saw for himself. 

George R. Peck came to Kansas from Wisconsin when 
a very young man and began the practice of law at 
Independence. In that profession he and Plumb were 
rising to distinction at the same time. They were 
friends, and it was with emotion that Peck said : 

Senator Plumb was true and loyal. He stood by his friends 
and stood through every sort of trial. He did not forsake — 
he did not quit. He stuck to the end. And he did not forget 
his friends. He was active in their interest whether they were 
present or absent. "When he saw an opportunity to help a friend 



390 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

he did not wait to be asked to help. lie did it at once and then 
notified the friends of the result. That caused him to be loved 
in Kansas more than any other public man in the State ever 
was loved. He was particularly the friend of the poor and 
helpless, the shiftless and the incapacitated. He had a number 
of people of this kind on his hands all the time. They never 
appealed to him in vain. 

He had an instinct for business, and no man ever had finer 
business judgment. He was fair and square in his dealings, 
and he had a fine sense of honor. He trusted his associates 
fully. 

In politics Plumb was for the people. He was for the Sher- 
man anti-trust law, and he opposed and voted against the 
McKinley Bill because he believed it was not a just bill. 

Senator Cullom said that sometimes Plumb would ap- 
pear to take little notice of an important matter that 
was engrossing the attention of the Senate, and that 
Senators would count on his indifference to the measure. 
But very unexpectedly Plumb might rise in his place 
to make a few remarks, and then make a speech that 
would overturn and upset everything and direct the 
bill as he wanted it to go. In these speeches he sur- 
prised all with his knowledge of even the remotest 
effects of the bill, and its complete history. Cullom 
often saw him do that. Sometimes such a speech would 
change the whole course of business in the Senate. 
Such speeches were always possible while Plumb was in 
the Senate. " Plumb was open, above-board, frank, 
cordial, but firm as iron, and would not yield an inch 
until convinced that he ought to," said Senator Cullom. 
" He w r as proud, too, in a way, and never lost his self- 
respect ; never lost faith in himself. He w r as a hail fel- 
low, but he did not permit undue familiarity. He could 
swear savagely and effectively when angered, but he 
was not a profane man and did not often swear." 

B. W. Perkins was a member of the House. He was 
prominent in Kansas politics and succeeded Plumb in 
the Senate. He had long been on intimate terms w r ith 



HABITS AND CHARACTERISTICS 391 

the Senator, and few knew him belter. In his memorial 
address Mr. Perkins said : 

In May last wo wero together in New York City, ami wo 
visited a bookstore, and he spent an hour or more looking over 
new publications, and left bis order for over a hundred volus 
Knowing his busy life, I asked him when he found time to read 
books, and he answered that he read them when traveling and 
nights when not otherwise engaged, for recreation. And thus 
every moment of this great man's life was utilized, and all his 
wakeful moments were busily employed. He was an early riser 
no matter what the demands upon him the previous night, and 
the early hours of the day were given to his correspondence, 
which was wonderfully voluminous. After dictating letters to 
his stenographer for two hours or more he would go to break- 
fast, if he had time; but if friends were waiting and his errand 
and Department work were pressing, he would defer his breakfast 
until later in the day and give his time and energies to the 
demands of a constituency that had no conception of the work 
it imposed upon him. 

In this way his hours for eating became very irregular and 
I have known many instances when late in the afternoon he took 
his first morsel of food for the day. But this did not seem to 
impair his capacity for work, and in his rapid, vigorous and 
irresistible way he pushed along, defying the inexorable laws of 
nature, until the end came in that sudden, startling manner on 
the 20th day of December last. Many who knew him well had 
anticipated that when the final summons came it would come 
without warning or notice, as a flash of lightning from a cloud- 
less sky, but all had hoped that the grim messenger, which 
comes but once to man, would defer his summons until this 
strong, sympathetic, robust, capable and useful man could give 
to his people and to his country many more years of his splendid 
service. 

I have known many business and public men, but in my entire 
circle of acquaintances I have never known one who could look 
after as many interests, assume so many responsibilities, and 
give his attention to as many cares at the same time, without 
neglecting any, as Preston B. Plumb. 

He died with his mental faculties unimpaired, his genial 
nature unchilled, and his love of friends and country as stalwart 
as in the happy days of boyhood. 

His fame, fairly earned, is secure, and his name will be 
honored by those who follow us. 



392 THE LIFE OF PPtESTON B. PLUMB 

Plumb, as Chief -of-Staff, often saw Stephen B. Elkins, 
who was Captain of a Company of Militia at Kansas 
City in 1SG3. The following year Elkins went to New 
Mexico, and he next saw Plumb in the Senate. He de- 
lighted to tell of a visit to Emporia to see Plumb and of 
going down to the Neosho with him to swim : 

I remember very well Plumb's fondness for swimming and 
his going to the stream near Emporia to swim, and returning 
to his law office sun-burned, the very picture of health. He 
was the greatest worker I ever saw. He had a great mind and 
a splendid physique. He would throw off his coat and vest and 
take up his business and keep two stenographers busy and carry 
on a conversation. He was full of nervous force and kept mov- 
ing about all the time. I have seen him get to his office at 
three in the morning, and instead of getting to bed to sleep, 
get his coat off and go to work. He would not sleep at all that 
night, and would be in the Senate apparently as fresh as any 
of us. Plumb made it his business to know everything. He 
was always informed as to the affairs of the Government — all 
its affairs. He was a great power in the Senate. He drank a 
little and played cards for recreation. 

So, it was, that the habits of Senator Plumb grew 7 out 
of his own nature and were little influenced by external 
circumstances. Intense application only put him in his 
normal condition. Said a Senator, on hearing of his 
death, " Poor Plumb used to get up before daylight every 
morning and write to half of Kansas." This voluntary 
burden grew to such proportions that no man could bear 
it. Then came the tragedy which ends every human 
life. 



CHAPTER LXIII 

CAPACITY FOR WORK 

Plumb rejoiced in his strength. The greatest pleas- 
ure be experienced in Lis life was feeling conscious of 
his power to strive, to overcome, to conquer, and in do- 
ing these things. In the fullness of his power his 
strength responded instantly to every demand he made 
on it. He overtaxed it constantly for many years with- 
out feeling any ill effects from overwork. Achieve- 
ment requires that there be vigor both of body and mind. 
In Plumb the mental man was predominant and re- 
lentless, regarding the physical man as a machine to 
be driven at high pressure to the limit of endurance. 
In these days of fierce and strenuous competition in all 
the fields of human endeavor such characters are not un- 
common, distinctions appearing only in degree of power 
and application. 

In many respects Plumb's intellect was marvelous. 
Men who have been able to carry two distinct lines of 
thought at the same time have been rare. Plumb was 
possessed of this remarkable gift to a considerable ex- 
tent, and to it he largely owed his ability to do an enor- 
mous amount of work. One of the foremost lawyers of 
Washington is authoritv for the statement that Plumb 
i could simultaneously read two columns of a newspaper 
| and comprehend both. " And once," said he, " I was 
sent by my partner to see him. Entering his office, I 
found him reading newspapers. lie told me to sit down 
and talk to him about the business I had on hand, and 
it was his business I was attending to. I thought my 

393 



394 THE LIFE OP PRESTON B. PLUMB 

reception rather cool and that the Senator was indif- 
ferent. I told my partner that I believed that Plumb i 
had not heard a word I said, for he read his papers all 
the time. But afterwards I heard him repeat to my 
partner all I had told him." 

When traveling Senator Plumb always carried books 
to read on trains and at hotels when not otherwise occu- 
pied. These were usually volumes of classic of conven- 
ient size — Shakespeare, Dante, Carlyle, Plutarch, 
Longfellow or the works of other masters. 

Once a friend found him reading a volume on a train. 
He seemed completely engrossed. He regarded the 
pages intently as he slowly turned the leaves. The 
friend thought he was only glancing through the book, 
and said, " Senator, you are not getting much from your 
book, reading it that way." Plumb looked up, for the 
first time recognizing his friend, not having observed his 
coming in, and, handing him the book, said, " I have 
read to this page. Turn to any page preceding it and 
read to me a line or two from the top and I will see 
what I can tell you of that which follows." Plumb 
could tell him the substance of almost every page to 
which his attention was thus called. That is how he 
read a book. More than one lawyer has said to the au- 
thor that Plumb would absorb the contents of a volume 
on the law in an hour. 

It is not pretended that he could read the two col- 
umns of a newspaper at once, or that he could read the 
pages of a book as he slowly turned the leaves and do 
that reading as it is usually done. But he caught and 
retained the substance of what he saw in his rapid 
survey of the columns of the paper and the pages 
of the book. In the days of his law practice many a 
client found him in full possession of the facts and the 
status of his case in the law long before the statement of 
the case was finished. All this came from the instan- 
taneous intuitive processes of Plumb's mind. 



CAPACITY FOR WORK 305 

"He has grown to be one of the most effective nil- 
round debaters in the Senate — the peer of any," wrote 
a Washington correspondent to his paper. " The secret 
of it is that he is a most persistent student, lie is an 
omnivorous reader. lie will master the contents of 
almost any book in an hour, and will assimilate its sa- 
lient facts in such a way that they are always on tap. 
He does not memorize a book; he absorbs it." 

Plumb secured William A. Miller, of Council Grove, 
a position in the Congressional Library. He once saw- 
Plumb going up Pennsylvania Avenue in a carriage, 
writing, and wholly oblivious to his surroundings. 
Miller once found him in his office looking through the 
Kansas papers and dictating to two stenographers, at 
the same time talking to some Kansas visitors. Miller 
was included in the conversation. The Senator kept 
his clerks busy, looking over his papers, and talked to 
his guests without confusion or apparent effort. 

Judge W. A. Johnston says Plumb was forceful and 
industrious : 

He had a great capacity for work — no Kansan, so far as I 
know, ever equaled him in that respect. He toiled day and 
night. He was expected to do the hard work in State cam- 
paigns. And he did. He never missed an appointment. Bad 
roads, foul weather, and poor conveyances were overcome by 
him. He did not waste time. In Washington he walked from 
Department to Department at such a pace that few men could 
keep up with him. He was always sure to know how Kansas 
people would view a question, and he was one of the first to see 
that prohibition would be favorably received. 

Kansas owes Plumb much. He was a faitliful public servant. 
He never flinched. He never evaded a duty. Unfinished work 
was a challenge which he accepted and fell upon with all his 
might. He did not spare his strength and died from overwork. 

P. I. Bonebrake, State Auditor, and long prominent 
in Kansas politics, was at one time Chairman of the 
State Central Committee. He found Plumb his main 
reliance for meetings in the larger towns. 



39G THE LIFE OF PEESTON P>. PLUMB 

He was the only speaker we had who could be depended on to 
be always on hand. He was promptly at all his engagements, no 
matter what came up. I always felt secure when Plumb was on 
the circuit. And he did not confine himself to the large towns. 
He often made pilgrimages into the frontier counties. In fact, 
he liked to do so. He had lived on the frontier and felt the 
charm of pioneer life. I once sent him on a hard trip to the 
southwest part of the State. There was a meeting at one point, 
and a drive of ninety miles to another meeting the day follow- 
ing. The meetings had not been arranged in that way, but one 
speaker had failed me, and Plumb said he would try to fill all 
dates. And he did speak at his first appointment and drive 
ninety miles to the appointment the next day. 

The Eev. Richard Cordley was a pioneer minister of 
the Congregational Church in Kansas. He knew 
Plumb from the time of his arrival, and delivered his 
funeral sermon, in which he said: 

It has been said that his marked characteristic was his capac- 
ity for work. But many people have a capacity for work and 
unlimited endurance who yet accomplish little. Mr. Plumb 
rather had a marvelous capacity to make his work tell. He 
always did the effective thing. He could do more things and 
make them all come to time than any man I ever knew. He 
had the faculty of finding the spring that moved the whole 
affair. He would accomplish by the turn of a hand what 
another might worry over for a day. This was his great tempta- 
tion to overwork. A man who can effect so much every time 
he moves is desperately tempted to keep moving. When with 
so slight an effort he could do so much he could not afford to 
stand still. And it doubtless was an inspiration to see things 
dispatched by a touch so slight or a word so easily uttered. 

In the summer of 1S01 Bailie P. Waggener was in 

Washing-ton. ne visited Plumb at his office, where he 
arrived about eight o'clock in the morning. He found 
the room half-full of newspapers which had been read 
and thrown aside. Plumb was in his shirt-sleeves, and 
Ids suspenders were thrown down from his shoulders. 
A pencil was in his hand and a block of writing paper 
on the desk, and from this inanv sheets had been torn. 



CArACITY FOB WORK 397 

Plumb was alone and hard at work. Be would open a 
paper, scan it closely but rapidly, write a few lines OH 
the tablet before him, and cast the paper into the heap 
at his side. Then he would take up another and go 
through it in like manner, lie told Waggener that he 
had not been to breakfast, " and," said he, " I have not 
been in bed. My stenographers left me after midnight. 
As I was not sleepy I kept at my work." He told Wag- 
gener that every week he read all the newspapers pub- 
lished in Kansas — that it was necessary for him to do 
so to know how the people of the State felt in relation 
to public matters and toward public men. 

Walter B. Stevens, Washington correspondent of the 
St. Louis Globe-Democrat, was on intimate terms with 
Senator Plumb for many years, and he has left this ac- 
count of how he worked : 

He did two, three, and four things at one time. Often and 
often he sat dictating letters to his stenographer, glancing over 
newspapers, and transacting business with callers. Waa it any 
wonder that the tissue of the cells of the brain gave way under 
that kind of mental strain ? There was no ordinary stenographer 
who could keep up with him, so he would dictate three or four 
sentences like a flash, turn in conversation for ten or fifteen 
seconds to his visitor and at the same time keep on opening and 
scanning newspapers. And there was the remarkable thing 
about his mind's operation. In the gaps between dictation he 
carried the thread of what he wanted to say in the letter, lb- 
carried the thread of conversation at the same time. Perhaps 
the latest remark of the visitor was made after the Senator had 
resumed his dictation. The trained ear and busy mind caught 
it. When the dictation stopped the Senator went right on with 
the conversation. He did not repeat to his stenographer. He 
did not ask his visitor what he had just said. And the opening 
and reading of newspapers continued. The mind had triple 
capacity seemingly. This statement may be called incredible. 
Those who knew the Senator will verify it. Mr. Plumb's fel low- 
Senators often remarked upon this peculiar faculty or activity 
of mind. It was this which enabled him to carry so long "as 
much work as six men could have done and preserve their li\ 
to quote the words of Senator Manderson. 



308 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

Of Napoleon the historians say that he could read witH one 
eye and write with the other; that is, he could carry two trains 
of thought in his mind at the same time. This extraordinary 
faculty Senator Plumb possessed. Often he arose to address 
the Senate and as he did so would pick up from the desk in 
front of him paper after paper. The casual observer thought 
these were notes of what the Senator wanted to say. They were 
not. They were letters of the morning's mail which he had 
gathered up and brought into the Senate chamber with him. He 
was actually addressing the Senate and at the same time going 
through his correspondence. 









CnArTEK LXIV 

CHARITY 

Plumb was not entitled to any special credit for hav- 
ing an inclination to charity. That he was touched and 
moved by distress should not be regarded as exceptional, 
for most people are so affected. Men in ordinary cir- 
cumstances, and even in poverty, rarely refuse a meri- 
torious appeal for aid. Sometimes the cries of the poor 
fall on the heedless ears of the rich. It is worthy of 
note in any man that he recognizes his obligations to 
society and carries a warm heart for humanity. Plumb 
never forgot that he had been a poor man. To the un- 
fortunate and troubled he ever turned a kindly face. 

It is not too much to say that hundreds of churches, 
church-schools, and ministers were aided by Senator 
Plumb. His papers disclose something of this, but he 
never mentioned a matter of that kind and disliked to 
hear his helpful acts referred to by others. 

Mrs. I. E. Perley was one of the first settlers of Em- 
poria. Her brother was a member of the Town Com- 
pany. She was for sixteen years president of the Bene- 
volent Society or its ward committee, and she had the 
disposition of the money raised for charity in the town. 
She said, " Mr. Plumb always gave double the largest 
subscription on the list and a Christmas dinner for the 
poor besides. He has told me many times that if there 
was any need, to let him know; for his hand and purse 
were always open. We had a charity ball every year 
to raise money for benevolences, and he always gave us 
a hundred dollars for that." In a letter written him 

399 



400 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

February 1, 1885, she said, " I write you a note express- 
ing the thanks of our ladies for your gift to the poor 
of our city. I wish I might make this speechless paper 
tell you of the comfort and cheer that your gifts have 
brought to many homes ; I cannot ; I am poor in thanks, 
and I feel that words, at best, can but very feebly con- 
vey or interpret the feeling of gratitude." 

On the 28th of November, 1S8G, Senator Plumb wrote 
Mrs. Perley saying: 

A day or two before I left Mr. Perley came with the usual 
subscription paper for the benefit of the poor of Emporia; and 
that has led me to think of something in the same connection, 
to-wit, a Christmas dinner for these same poor people. My idea 
is that a good wholesome square meal be furnished them on that 
day — or rather the material out of which they could make it, 
and out of which they should make it. Is the idea practicable 
and worthy of being carried out? To how many families would 
it apply; and what would be the cost of the plan if carried out? 

In January, 1888, he wrote her as follows : 

This cold weather makes me think of those who are or may be 
insufficiently supplied with fuel, shelter, clothing and food — and 
especially those of Emporia and vicinity. ... I will add to 
your fund for the uses of the needy whenever you report the 
necessity or desirability of it. 

In the Globe-Democrat, December 27, 1891, Walter 
B. Stevens said Senator Plumb spent every year in 
never-paraded charity twice the amount of his senatorial 
salary. Continuing he says: 

When the people with whom the Senator lived put things in 
order a couple of days ago, after the funeral, they found in a 
drawer a bundle of crochet work for the holidays. They were 
mystified at first. Then they remembered that they had seen an 
old lady at the door with a basket of these articles trying to sell 
some of her handiwork. They remembered that on that same 
morning the Senator had come to them to get some change. 
Since then the old lady has come again, and she has told of her 
talk with the kind Senator and of his promise to buy all of the 
crochet work she could make up to Christmas time. 



CHARITY MM 

The apostle exhorted his son in the faith that the 
end of the commandment is chanty out of a pure heart. 
Kindness to the poor and the unfortunate has been en- 
joined by every preacher of righteousness. Its origin 
and prompting rise in the brotherhood of humanity, and 
its secret practice has ever been the fruit of the noble 
heart and the right life. 



CHArTER LXV 

A HELPFUL MAN 

No one should have honor above his fellows because 
he is kind of heart. He should be so from that sense 
of brotherhood common to humanity. The incidents 
detailed in this chapter are not set down in any sense of 
hero worship. Nor are they designed to inspire the idea 
that Senator Plumb should have praise beyond any man 
performing the same acts. In recording the life of a 
public character it is right, however, that his attitude 
towards the people should be shown. And it is impor- 
tant that we should discover whether his kind actions 
were spontaneous and voluntary, or inspired by selfish 
motives. Sometimes a glimpse into the soul as revealed 
by a good or selfish action is worth pages of generali- 
zation. Occurrences are recorded here without com- 
ment, and they tell their own story. 

L. A. Bigger was one of the first settlers of Hutchin- 
son, Kansas, and one of its successful business men. 
Of Plumb's readiness to help a friend he says : 

I knew Senator Preston B. Plumb for many years. As I was 
not in politics he had no occasion to favor me. But he was al- 
ways my stand-by when I went to "Washington either on business 
or pleasure. He would always welcome me and go right into the 
matter I had on hand. If my business was with the Departments 
he would go with mo and say to the heads of the Departments, 
"Here is my friend ; do for him as you would do for me." And 
the Department officials always did it. 

One morning at my summer home in Colorado I re- 
ceived a telegram from my partner saying " Cy is to be hanged in 

4vJ 



A HELPFUL MAN 40.'J 

October. Come quick." He meant Cyrus Frease, who was the 
uncle of my partner's wife. I boarded the first train. At home 
I got the story of the " Haystack Tragedy." The family was in 
great distress, and much against my will persuaded me to go im- 
mediately to Texas witll the brother of the eomhmnrd man. It 
seemed folly to expect to upset the decision of the I'nited Si 
District Court, but we went, anyway. When we got to Paris, 
Texas, we found the court in session. I called on Judge Bryant 
and told him the purpose of my visit was to ascertain if there 
was any truth in the rumor that there were gross errors and much 
injustice in the trial of the six Kansans condemned to death. 
I had never before met 60 cold a proposition as Judge Bryant, 
lie fairly froze me out of his office, and acted as though I might 
have done the killing myself. I reported to the condemned man's 
brother, and, with a local attorney, we discussed the matter until 
midnight. Then it occurred to me to wire Plumb. I did so, 
saying that six worthy Kansans had been unjustly condemned to 
death by the United States Court in Texas; that Judge Bryant 
had presided at the trial ; that I wanted to get the injustice of 
the case before him ; and I asked him to wire Judge Bryant im- 
mediately of my standing and request him to accord me a full 
hearing, that I might do something for the condemned men. At 
ten o'clock next morning I received a note from Judge Bryant 
requesting me to call and see him. lie showed me Plumb's tele- 
gram and apologized for his treatment of me. lie said that in 
his private opinion the verdict was unjust as to four of the men, 
including my friend CyTus Frease, but thought it was just as to 
the other two. He was ready to recommend the pardon of these 
four. He said that anything in the world he could do for me 
should be done, as I was Plumb's friend. I speak of this to 
show the hold Plumb had on men over the country. The Judge 
gave me a letter to the members of the jury which had con- 
victed the men. I visited each one of them, with the result that 
the Department of Justice investigated the case, discovered the 
frauds, and all the men were finally set free. 

It is perhaps natural that the St. Louis Globe-Demo- 
crat should furnish more incidents in the life of Plumb 
than any other newspaper. Between Mr. Stevens, its 
Washington correspondent, and the Senator a firm 
friendship existed. And the paper was very favorable 
to Kansas in Territorial days, and it was always inter- 
ested in Kansas affairs. It was a powerful factor in 



404 THE LIFE OP PRESTON B. PLUMB 

the political and material development of the State. 
The following is quoted from its columns : 

A man lay in a dazed condition in a Leadville boardinghouse. 
It was during the rush for fortunes, when that city was only a 
mining camp. Mountain pneumonia caught its victims and 
carried them over the divide like a whiff. This man's condition 
was that critical stage when a few hours' continuation at 11,000 
feet altitude meant pneumonia and death. Plumb, who was for- 
tune-seeking in the camp, heard of the sick man. Twenty-five 
years before the two had been friends and business associates in 
Kansas. Twenty years before they differed and quarreled. 
They had not spoken to each other in all that interim, though 
their paths had crossed and recrossed. Perhaps hard words had 
been spoken to mutual friends. Into the sick man's room at 
early morning came Plumb, without a word of previous intima- 
tion to pave the way. " You must get out of this," he said, after 
a look. A couple of hours later, the sick man, wrapped in 
blankets, was lifted downstairs and into a four-horse ambulance, 
which was worth money in those days. Over and down the 
mountains went the outfit to Park City, then the terminus of 
the railroad. The sick man was lifted into a special car. 
Plumb was still by his side. He did not leave him until he saw 
him in a hotel in Denver and in the hands of people who would 
nurse him through. Then, with a " You'll be all right now," he 
was off. The two did not meet again for years. But the story 
explains why, on Sunday night * Richard J. Hinton walked the 
streets of Washington weeping like a child. 

In the life of Noyes Spicer, an early settler of Kansas 
and an associate of Plumb, there was an incident simi- 
lar to the foregoing. He was sent by the Senator to 
Leadville to have oversight of some of his interests there. 
Spicer found people dying rapidly of a malady which 
affected the throat, and it, together with mountain fever, 
seized him; in addition, erysipelas developed. He was 
about to die. So swiftly was death doing its work in 
the camp that a hundred feet of trench was kept open 
all the time so that burials could be quickly made. 
Plumb hurried to Leadville. Spicer requested to be 



i Plumb had died that morning. 






A HELPFUL MAN (06 

taken from the camp the following day whether he 

should be dead or alive, and Plumb said il should be 
doue. The next morning he drove with the sick man to 
the railroad and went with him to Denver. There 
Spicer recovered. 

Charles B. Graves, lawyer, lived in Emporia for many 
years. He was Associate Justice of the Kansas Su- 
preme Court. No man knew l'lumb better, and B] leak- 
ing of him Judge Graves said : 

Senator Plumb was always helping someone. Always when lie 
came home from Washington he soon found what everyone was 
doing and how each one had prospered, and he invariably sought 
out the unfortunate and aided them with money, or secured for 
them some employment in which there was opportunity for 
them to help themselves. And he never failed to point out a 
way for them and to encourage them to exert themselves in their 
own interest. One day he came into my office and looked over 
my law library. lie observed that my set of the United States 
Statutes was not complete. He said he would send me from 
Washington the missing volumes. I supposed he would not 
think of the matter again; but he did. In a few weeks I received 
the volumes I wanted. 

In matters connected with the town's progress Plumb was 
always consulted. When it was decided to do anything a 
meeting was usually called. "When the matter had been discussed 
and a decision reached, someone invariably would get up and 
say he was in accord with what had been said, but that Plumb 
always took an interest in the town and was a man of fine busi- 
ness ability, and that he would like to have the matter post- 
poned until the Senator was at home and could be consulted. 
This was almost always done. "When Plumb came home the 
matter was submitted to him. He always took an interest in it, 
investigated it, discussed it, and then gave his judgment, which 
usually met with the approval of all. 

As an illustration of the promptness with which he 
responded to any demand made on him, and the interest 
he had in the old soldiers, the following was related of 
Senator Plumb by Dr. Cordley : 

I had a friend in Lawrence who went into the army. At the 
close of the war he was broken in health. He applied for a pen- 



406 THE LIFE OF. PRESTON B. PLUMB 

eion, but on account of missing links in the evidence it wa9 
delayed for many years. A few years ago the missing evidence 
was supplied and a pension was granted him. But when granted 
it was a mere pittance. lie was now totally disabled. He could 
just walk about, but his limbs were so shaken of palsy that he 
could not even feed himself. He was the most complete physical 
wreck I ever saw. Some three years ago he told me his tale 
and asked me if I could not help him to get an increase of 
pension. He was certainly entitled to a full pension if any man 
ever was entitled to one. His case was clear and his testimony 
admitted. But his attorneys at Washington kept making him 
costs, and did not advance his case. It did not seem as if they 
cared to help him. I heard the poor old soldier's story with 
mingled pity and indignation. I told him I thought I knew of 
a way to reach his case. I wrote Senator Plumb and laid the 
case before him. He wrote me at once for some facts by which 
he could identify the case among the thousands on file at the 
department. In an incredibly short time I met the old soldier, 
and he told me he had just received an increase to his pension 
making it ample for his need. This is but one of many cases 
I have myself personally known. 

Senator James H. Berry, of Arkansas, served long 
with Plumb and remembers with gratitude an instance 
of his kindness and generosity. Senator Berry says : 

One day Plumb inquired of me if my daughter was not ill 
from a nervous disease, saying that Mrs. Plumb had spoken to 
him about it. He strongly urged me to send my daughter to 
a certain physician in New York for treatment. 

I replied that I had already had my daughter treated by the 
best physicians in the West, and that I had just brought her home 
from Philadelphia, where she had been treated by a physician 
who said there was very little hope for her. I had lost hope of 
her recovery; and having no faith that she could be benefited, 
and not being a rich man, I hesitated to go to further expense, 
for the expense would be large; and that if I had any hope of 
her improvement I would manage to send her. 

Plumb said it seemed too bad that she should not have the 
benefit of medical treatment, which he felt sure would help her 
much and perhaps cure her. And he said to me, " Do not let 
money stand in the way. I am much interested in this matter. 
Make a draft on me for one thousand dollars and send the girl 
to New York. If you ever feel able to pay mo the money all 



A IIELPFUL MAN 107 

right; and if you are never able to pay it I will never ask you 
for it." 

This revealed to me how deeply in earnest Plumb wafl. I told 
him I could not take the money, for 1 might Dot be able to pay 
it back, but as he was so sure of benelieial results I would find 
means to send my daughter to New York. I thanked him for 
his kindness. I sent her to New York, and she was very much 
benefited. Her health was practically restored. 

Senator Plumb never asked me for a favor in his life. He 
never asked me to vote for nor against any bill in the >^ 
There was no favor he wanted of me, and there was none I 
could have rendered him. His action was entirely disinterested 
and from friendship alone. 

When I took my seat in the Senate I was appointed to the 
Committee on Public Lands. Senator Plumb was Chairman of 
that Committee. From the very first Senator Tlumb was espe- 
cially kind to me. He always explained anything which came 
up, and took particular care that I should have full informa- 
tion about the public lands and the policy of the Government 
in their disposition. He often requested me to report bills 
which the Committee had agreed on. These courtesies, I, being 
a new Senator and without experience in Senatorial procedure, 
were very much appreciated. A friendship grew between us 
which continued without interruption until severed by the death 
of Senator Plumb. 

Senator Ingalls was succeeded by W. A. Peffer, who, 
in a letter to the author says : 

Plumb was a big-souled man. He treated me as a brother. 
When I went to Washington as Senator he took me to the vari- 
ous Departments and introduced me to the head men. lb- 
secured for me a middle position (between an equal numb<T 
of Republicans and Democrats) on an important committee 
(Claims). He was a generous man — liberal in his opinions on 
all subjects. 

Captain A. C. Pierce, who came through Iowa into 
Kansas with Plumb in 1S5G with anus to aid the set- 
tlers in their battle for freedom, was in the Eleventh 
Kansas. Here is an incident of army life which he 
related to the author : 

In 1861 Plumb was elected to the Legislature. I was elected 
from my county. I remember one cold day Plumb rode horse- 



408 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

back to Emporia for the purpose of obtaining a tract of land 
for the site of the State Normal School. That was a hard 
day for Plumb, but a big day for Emporia. As I stood in 
Emporia a few days ago and looked down that broad and beauti- 
ful avenue at that magnificent Normal School building with its 
great corps of instructors and its thousand pupils — the flower 
of Kansas — I said " There is a tree of knowledge planted by 
P. B. Plumb." Look any way you please — come here to Fort 
Riley. It is the handsomest garrison in the United States, if 
not in the world. Plumb did it. We often met in the army. I 
never saw him discouraged, no matter what the hardship or what 
the duties. I know and remember how he felt about that 
march from Cane Hill to Van Buren. The regiment was on 
foot and had to ford Cove Creek thirty-two times. It was a 
small stream at its source, but before we reached Van Buren 
it was a turbulent stream and almost waist-deep. I had char ire 
of the prisoners at Van Buren and was up most of the night. 
Plumb came to me and said " Pitch in, Lieutenant," and he laid 
down a can of sardines. Well, now, he could not have done 
more for me at that time. It was just what I wanted and 
needed. It illustrated Plumb's character. He w r as always doing 
the right thing to help and assist someone. He touched el- 
bows and sympathized with his comrades as few army officers 
did. Some men were in the army for pay; Plumb was there 
from principle. His battle was to preserve the Republic and 
constitutional liberty. Few men in the army understood the 
issues better than P. B. Plumb, and none had more faith that 
they would be settled finally on the right side. 

A boy could approach Senator Plumb with assurance 
of a hearing. An instance is given. F. A. Brogan, 
now a lawyer, of Omaha, was an Emporia boy at college 
in Washington. Like other Kansans he believed Sena- 
tor Plumb could and would aid him, and lie was not 
disappointed : 

I had been appointed to represent my college in a debate on 
the subject of the advisability of the territorial expansion of the 
United States, a question purely academic, but now a great na- 
tional question. I was on the affirmative side. We were at 
liberty to inform ourselves in any way we could, and I availed 
myself of that permission by calling on Senator Plumb. I 
stated my situation to him and asked him to help me. He 
promptly lifted one leg upon the other knee, and hugged it in 



A HELPFUL MAN 109 

tli.it position, while lie proceeded, for nearly an liour, to tell me 
what he thought on the question I had in mind. He said this 
country should not extend its sovereignty over an alien people, 
like the Mexicans, or those of the South American republics. 
But he proceeded with much enthusiasm to tell me of tin- possi- 
bilities of Canada, especially the Northwest country, which was 
then scarcely heard of in the United States. He Baid Manitoba 
and the country west of it. would he one of the gnat wheal gran- 
aries of the world, and that it would be Bettled by a people 
homogeneous with the people of the United States. He said that 
if a peaceful opportunity to unite with Canada should present 
itself it should he emhraccd hy all means, hut that further than 
that we should not go. His familiarity with the details of a 
subject then so little discussed was a surprise to me and so im- 
pressed me that, having a good memory, 1 embodied it in my ar- 
gument. The debate was before judges, who were Senator Mor- 
gan, of Alabama, and Congressmen Randall, of Pennsylvania, 
and Waite, of Connecticut. I think they were surprised at the 
maturity of thought which I displayed on a subject in which 
the public at that time had little interest. Anyway, they de- 
cided that I had won the debate, and I was awarded the gold 
medal. 

Miss Ellen Plumb, sister to the Senator, owned the 
principal bookstore in Emporia. Miss Laura Thomas 
was one of her clerks, and relates this incident which 
came under her notice : 

One Williams, an old soldier, was never able to get his pen- 
sion. His death was preceded by a long illness. His wife was 
also sick, and blind from cataracts on her eyes. They were com- 
pelled to mortgage their farm and had a very hard time. On 
account of the loss of some papers it was difficult to get the pen- 
sion for Mrs. Williams, but finally Senator Plumb had it al- 
lowed. It carried with it a considerable amount of back pay. 
Soon after receiving her pension she was in the bookstore. 
Senator Plumb was there talking to some friends. She heard 
his voice and turned toward him. She could see but dimly, but 
looking at him with her almost sightless eyes, she Baid, "Oh, 
Mr. Plumb, I want to thank you for the pension you got for 
me! You don't know how much it meant to me. It has raised 
the mortgage from the farm, clothed my children, and helped 
me to regain my health and my sight." I can see Senator 
Plumb's face yet, lighted up with pleasure. Tears came into 



410 TIIE LIFE OF PRESTON B. TLUMB 

his eyes as he said, " I am very glad I was able to do something 
for you." - 

John T. Roberts is a compositor in the Government 
Printing Office at Washington. With other Welsh peo- 
ple he settled at Emporia soon after the Civil War and 
was well known to Plumb. He related to the author 
several instances of the helpfulness of the Senator: 

Once when there was very little to do in my line at Emporia 
I went to Kansas City to work on the daily papers there. I 
could get work for but three days in the week, which would 
not support myself and family. I slept at a fire station and 
got most of my meals at free lunch counters that I might send 
my wages to my wife, who was still at Emporia. 

Just at this time some Senate Committee was at Kansas City 
on business in connection with the Stock Yards there. Plumb 
was with the Committee and was stopping at the Midland Hotel. 
The weather was extremely cold. I was suffering from lung 
trouble and was having hemorrhages almost every day. 

One night I was in a saloon and had a severe hemorrhage. 
The bar-tender gave me a drink of brandy, and I started to 
the fire station to sleep on the hay. I was very weak. A ter- 
rific storm of snow and sleet was blowing down the streets. I 
had my head down, pressing against the storm, making my way 
through the drifted snow. I could not see ahead, and I ran into 
someone. On looking up I saw it was Senator Plumb. He 
knew me instantly and inquired what I was doing there. I told 
him. He took me to his apartments. He said I must go 
home, and gave me money. He said I should have a place in 
the Government Printing Office at Washington, and that I 
was to wait at Emporia until he sent for me. In a short time 
I received a telegram to come to Washington and go to work, 
which I did. I have worked steadily to this day in the place 
he secured for me. 



2 At page 15, Eulogium, by Benjamin F. Simpson, is the following: 
Every effort of his (Plumb's) mind, every pulsation of his heart, 
every cent in his purse, would be cheerfully given to aid an unfortu- 
nate companion-in-arms. If the roll of the old veterans west of the 
Missouri River could he called, and each one requested to give the 
name of the comrade who helped him most, a majority would answer, 
Preston B. Plumb. 



CHAPTER LXVI 

STORIES 

Stories about Plumb are not as numerous ns it seems 
they ought to be. It appears that they have not been 
preserved, for many existed in his day. lie was a fine 
story-teller and had an inexhaustible fund from which 
he drew. To this his surviving friends bear witness. 
Some of the stories recorded here are merely incidental. 
They originated in connection with his work or grew 
out of his political transactions. 

Kansas is the most practical of all the States. As 
absurd as the statement will seem to some, Kansas takes 
herself seriously. It is no surprise to her people that 
they lead in amount and value of products, as well as 
in social and political reforms. There is an impression 
prevalent in the State that every good thing in any field 
of human progress appears first in Kansas. There is 
much to support this belief. Other States at first ridi- 
cule the new things brought forth in Kansas, but in time 
adopt them. The present progressive tendency in the, 
political life of the nation had its origin principally with 
the "wild-eyed populists" and their movements and 
agitations. 

But with all these things, there is in Kansas a feeling 
that the world must not be looked in the face with too 
much concern. This is scarcely to be called fortitude, 
for the conditions do not wan-ant the entertainment of 
such a degree of gravity. It is indifference to possible 
calamity. It results from the presence of plenty on 
every hand. Discouragement must be encountered with 

411 



412 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

scorn. Nothing is so bad but that it might be much 
worse. " Keep smiling " is the State proverb. If the 
drought burns up one section of the State the account of 
it in the papers is followed by the cheering information 
that a farmer in an adjoining county sold his alfalfa seed 
for $9,682.32 and realized a similar sum, or more, for 
the four crops of hay taken from that same alfalfa field 
during the summer. 

These tendencies prevailed in Kansas from the first. 
They fixed the cast of the Kansas mind, which is reflected 
in the political institutions, the social life, and the liter- 
ature of the State. In shaping these matters and giv- 
ing them vital individuality Plumb bore a large part. 
In fact, it is claimed by many and admitted by not a 
few that he was the first to develop into the ideal Kan- 
san. " He spoke the Kansas language," said J. N. Har- 
rison (called " Curley " Harrison by his friends), to the 
writer; and after a moment's reflection added, "the 
fact is, he invented it." Continuing, Harrison said he 
was a little slow getting acquainted with Plumb. 
" After I was introduced to him it was ten years before 
I spoke to him again. One day I was on a train be- 
tween Lawrence and Kansas City when Senator Plumb 
entered the car, and, slapping me on the back, said, 
' Hello, Curley.' He sat down beside me and I asked in 
surprise who told him my name. ' Nobody,' he said. I 
told him I had met him but once before. 'I know it,' 
he said, ' on the east steps of the State-house, at Topeka, 
ten years ago this September. Jim Hallowell intro- 
duced us.' When I inquired how he remembered my 
name he said ' Well, I remembered " Curley " and the 
rest was easy. I always make it a point to remember 
a man's first name. If I have that I never have any 
trouble about remembering the other.' " 

In the spring of 1890, Amos E. Wilson, cashier of the 
First National Bank, Leavenworth, Kansas, met Plumb 
for the first time. On his last campaign Plumb boarded 



STORIES 418 

a train at Great Bend, li was a( dusk. Wilson was 

on the train. He bad seen Plumb but the one ti ■ 

Plumb came through the car in a hurry, stopped al 
Wilson's seat, put down his grip and said, "Take can- 
of this, Wilson; I will be back after a little while." 
Wilson was greatly surprised thai Plumb remembered 
him at all, and that he did so in the gathering darkness 
he regarded as remarkable. 

The visitor who has had occasion to cash checks or 
drafts in Washington will remember the difficulty of 
it. Both identification and indorsement are sometimes 
required, and often the money is charged to the endorser 
until payment has been received on the paper. Many 
public men have lost money by such indorsements, 
checks coming back protested. Plumb had more than 
his share of such losses. Once a Kansan of inlluence 
but with a poor reputation for meeting financial obli- 
gations was at Washington on a mission which Plumb 
was obliged to oppose. Mr. Funston, member of the 
House, was encouraging the political bushwhacking. 
Plumb and the visitor were passing a bank when he said 
in a matter-of-course way, as though it had just occurred 
to him, " Oh, yes, Plumb, here is a bank. I want to gel 
some money. Come in and indorse for me." " Oh," 
said Plumb as he tossed his head and quickened his pace, 
" you see Funston. He can write better than I can ! " 1 

An amusing incident occurred in Plumb's first elec- 
tion to the Senate. Sears, one of his principal oppo- 
nents, brought in helpers from all parts of the State 
Among them were two men whom he found troublesome. 
They were drunk all the time. We shall call them Jones 
and Smith because their names were something else 
Sears saw they were injuring his chances of election and 
fell upon this plan to be rid of them without offense. 
He said to Smith : " Jones is injuring my chances of 



i See Memorial Volume, p. 3S, for circumstances of this incident. 



414 THE LIFE OF PKESTON B. PLUMB 

election. I want you to take charge of him and get him 
very drunk. Then take him to Kansas City and keep 
him drunk there until this thing is over." Then he 
called Jones and gave him the same directions as to 
Smith. Each was enjoined to be discreet and not al- 
low the other to know what had been said about him. 
They sought each other and set about their respective 
duties. Neither found it hard to get the other drunk, 
and when they reached the maudlin stage they went to 
Kansas City where each saw that the other did not be- 
come sober. They were too drunk to know when the 
election occurred, and were forgotten by Sears. They 
remained in Kansas City several weeks after the election 
was over, each urging the other to drink to the extent 
of his capacity. They were only discovered through a 
requisition for additional funds which they sent in 
about the time the Legislature adjourned. 

Plumb was possessed of a keen sense of humor. He, 
however, knew the danger of indulging in it at the ex- 
pense of others, and rarely made use of it. Senator 
Pettigrew once recommended a candidate for appoint- 
ment to a position in one of the Dakota land offices. 
The confirmation of the appointment had to be recom- 
mended by the Committee on Public Lands. The Ter- 
ritorial Governor of Dakota was one Ordway, who had 
been sent out by President Arthur, and who had been 
accused of trafficking in justice and county-seat loca- 
tions in the Territory. He opposed the confirmation. 
At the hearing before the committee Pettigrew advised 
the candidate to berate Ordway and review the disrep- 
utable actions of which he was accused in Dakota. 
Tli is the candidate did, and it was a very severe arraign- 
ment that he made of the Governor. When he had con- 
cluded, Senator Berry said : " Mr. Chairman, I move 
that the Governor be acquitted and the candidate con- 
firmed." 

Plumb (Chairman) said: "You have heard the 



STORIES 415 



motion just made by Senator Berry. All in favor of 
the motion say * Aye,' and those opposed say 'No.'' 
Everybody voted "Aye." With a smile Plumb an- 
nounced that the motion was carried unanimously and 
the candidate would be confirmed. 

Senator Blair (New Hampshire) recalls an instance 
in this same connection. One day when the Committee 
on Public Lands was in session Ordway said something 
very discourteous to Senator Pettigrew. Plumb ordered 
him to withdraw the remark and apologize. Ordway 
refused, and Plumb sprang from his chair, reaching for 
him. Ordway was at the opposite end of the table, but 
it seemed that Plumb was halfway to him, reaching for 
him with both hands before he had fairly left the chair. 
Plumb did not wait to call a guard to put him out, but 
was doing so himself when Ordway apologized, and the 
incident was at an end. 

Senator Bristow tells of an occasion when Plumb 
went to Salina to make a speech. At the time there 
were three hotels in the town — two good ones, and a 
very poor one at the station called the Pacific House. 
In the early days Plumb had stopped at the Pacific 
House, when it was the only hotel in the town, and now 
he did not pass it by. Bristow found Plumb there sur- 
rounded by enthusiastic pioneers whom he had known 
from the first settlement of Kansas. Then Bristow got 
a new conception of Plumb, and saw that he was one of 
the people — that he loved the people — the farmer, set- 
tler, pioneer, stock-man. And Bristow believes Plumb 
was the most loved public man Kansas ever had. The 
people had a genuine affection for him because he was 
one of them — was not affected, not impressed with a 
sense of his importance, was just himself. He found 
dignity and self-respect in his respect for the Kansas 
pioneer, with whom he struggled to found a great Com- 
monwealth. 

General J. K. Hudson liked to tell how Senator Plumb 



416 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

enjoyed doing a favor. lie was visiting a Virginia 
planter and observed that his host had a poor pocket- 
knife. Plumb said that he ought to have a better knife 
than that, and promised to send it from Washington. 
The planter did not expect him to remember the knife, 
but he did remember it, and the Virginian received it 
by mail. 

L. A. Bigger tells of a deserving widow who had eight 
children, aged from two years to sixteen. She was a 
capable woman, but found it hard to support her family 
on the frontier. Mr. Bigger and others sent her to 
Washington. She and her children filed into Plumb's 
office without any previous notice; and she asked for a 
place, as she had been directed to do. Plumb was sur- 
prised, but he secured her a position in one of the De- 
partments, which she retained to her death, and edu- 
cated her children, all of whom became honored and 
useful citizens. Plumb thought he ought to have been 
consulted before the woman was sent to Washington, 
and wrote a scolding letter, which his friends did not 
mind. Thev knew he would not fail them. 



CHAPTER LXVII 

INFLUENCE IN THE SENATE 

Undue favor might be charged should even a brief 
narration of Senator Plumb's influence be set out. No 
objection, however, can be urged against the simple rec- 
ord of what his associates in the Senate and the cor- 
respondents of the great newspapers have voluntarily 
said on this subject. 

While the Mills Tariff Bill was pending, the repre- 
sentative of the New York Sun wrote that paper ag 
follows : 

Speaking the other day of the amendment providing for a 
tariff commission, which Senator Plumb tacked on to the 
tariff bill, a prominent Senator said: "There isn't another 
man in that chamber who could have secured the adoption of 
that amendment, but when Plumb proposed it, it went through 
unanimously and with little or no debate. The reason is that 
we have confidence in his good, practical judgment and hon- 
esty." There are few matters of importance brought before 
the Senate upon which Senator Plumb does not express his 
views, and they are generally approved by a majority of his 
colleagues. His breezy disregard of forms and his lack of 
veneration for old things because they are old sometimes bring 
a tempest about his head, however. For example, his oppi - 
tion to Senator Gibson's proposal to send " ambassadors " to 
the four great powers of Europe instead of simple ministers, 
and his characterization of our whole diplomatic service as 
useless and outgrown frippery, startled the staid old conserva- 
tives of the Senate as nothing else had done for many moons. 
They started up all round him. TTawlev and Hoar and Sher- 
man, and even William M. Evarts, who has scarcely been 
brought to his feet half a dozen times in four years, and it was 
five hours before they got done expressing their surprise and 

417 



418 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

indignation at his temerity. Nevertheless, when the yeas and 
nays were called, Gibson's proposal only had two votes to spare. 

Senator Manderson, of Nebraska, served long with 
Plumb and knew him well. Concerning the election of 
President of the Senate Manderson made a written 
statement in which he paid this tribute to tlie power of 
the eminent Kansan : 

No man of greater physical vigor, or more virile mental force, 
than Preston B. Plumb, United States Senator from Kansas, 
served in the Congress. His personality was like his vigorous 
young State, and with Ingalls and Plumb as Senators no State 
presented in the National councils a more winning and aggres- 
sive force. A combat with either, or both combined, was a 
conflict well worth witnessing. One was the polished orator, the 
other the sturdy debater. Ingalls fought with the rapier, and 
the quick flashing of the pointed blade brought wounds to his 
adversary. Plumb dealt with the battle-ax, which he wielded 
with such force and power as to bring incurable injury to his 
opponent. Plumb was powerful in Committee work and im- 
mensely strong on the floor. 

You could always depend upon him. He would ever be for 
you or against you. He was friend or foe, and the evidence 
of what he was came either by favor freely granted, or opposi- 
tion forcibly bestowed. Kansas has never had such prominence 
in national affairs, and was such an aggressive and winning 
power as when these differing types represented her in the 
Senate. 

During the twelve years that I served in the Senate I became 
acquainted with a large number of Senators who had had mili- 
tary service, and at one time a matter occurred showing the 
feeling that existed between those who had fought against eacli 
other in the great war. The Senate was Republican in majority 
and it became necessary to elect the President of the body. It 
was well understood that the two men who would be balloted for 
at the caucus were Senator Hoar, of Massachusetts, and Senator 
Frye, of Maine. A few days before the caucus was to be held, 
Plumb came to me and said: "Will you accept the Presidency 
of the Senate ?" I said: "No man would refuse so distin- 
guished an honor, but the next President will be Senator Frye 
or Senator Hoar." 

Ee replied: "Perhaps not, for a large number of us want 
you." " Well," I said, " the mere suggestion is compliment 






INFLUENCE IN THE SENATE 419 

enough, but I favor the election of Senator Frye and prop 
to vote for him." 

The caucus was held and to my surprise I received a large 
vote, the ballots being equally distributed between Frye, Hoar 
and myself. As the balloting continued, to my astonishment 
there was a constant gain in the Manderson vote, and finally 1 
was elected. 

In conversation with the writer Senator Manderson 
said that his election was clue to Plumb's influence in 
the Senate and activity in his behalf. And that Plumb 
believed New England was not satisfied unless she could 
have undue prominence in the Senate, which he refused 
longer to aid. Many other instances could be given to 
show the power of Senator Plumb in the Senate. 



CHAPTER LXVIII 

THE LAST CAMPAIGN 

The year 1891 was what was formerly known in 
Kansas as an " off year " in politics. The election was 
for the purpose of choosing only a part of the county 
officers and all the township officers. A strong political 
party must be based on a thorough primary organiza- 
tion. Township and county committees of parties in 
power are more alert and efficient than those of parties 
locally in a minority. The control of the local offices 
in a majority of the counties in a State is an asset of 
much value to any party. In Kansas the Alliance, or 
People's party, was successful in 1890, electing the Legis- 
lature and defeating Senator Ingalls. In sixty per cent, 
of the counties it elected the county and township offi- 
cers. The Populist movement was a rising tide in 
Kansas politics, and few Republicans were sanguine 
of carrying the State in the National election of 1892. 

It was certain that President Harrison would be re- 
nominated by the Republican party in 1892. Plumb 
had been for Harrison in 1888, contributing then a good 
deal to his nomination. There was a strong attach- 
ment between the two men, and Plumb secured much 
for Kansas. Through his efforts the President ap- 
pointed David J. Brewer Justice of the United States 
Supreme Court, one of the greatest political favors a 
State can receive. Plumb regarded a political obliga- 
tion as sacred and binding as any other. He was for 
the renomination of President Harrison, and he looked 
beyond that to the election. It was known that Cleve- 

420 



THE LAST CAMPAIGN 421 

land would be nominated by the Democratic party. 
Many Republicans, believing that his election in 1X84 
had been an accident, did not realize how formidable 
he would be as the opposition candidate in 1892. Plumb, 
however, was not one of these; he never under-est imated 
the strength of an antagonist. It was his judgment that 
the Homestead riots in Pennsylvania had alienated from 
the Republican party a considerable portion of the so- 
called labor vote. And he knew that the McKinley 
tariff was unpopular in the West. It was his opinion 
that the Republican part}- would be at a disadvantage 
in the approaching contest, and that to win at all every 
man of the party would be compelled to exert himself 
to the utmost. 

Having these things in view, Plumb urged a strenuous 
campaign in Kansas in 1891. It was to be the pre- 
liminary struggle of the National campaign. Every 
j township and county in possession of the Republican 
! party was to be held and as many won from the Alliance 
I as possible. Plumb's first plan was for Senator Ingalls 
i and himself to bear the main burden of the campaign. 
But Ingalls said the State Constitution intended that 
in " off years " the people should do politically as they 
pleased, and he did not take part in the canvass. So 
'■ Plumb entered on this campaign alone, as it were. He 
'did not do all the work, nor all the planning, nor all the 
speaking. But he was the inspiration and the moving 
spirit of the campaign. 

He began his tour of the State on the 27th of Septem- 
ber, which gave him just thirty working days before 
the election. He spoke in about sixty counties, prin- 
cipally those in which the Populists had won or were 
'likely to win. He made two speeches every day — 
often three a day. He attacked the sub-treasury and 
land-loan tenets of the Populist faith. He always 
iclosed with a powerful appeal to those Republicans who 
favored the Alliance and had gone into the People's 



ff 



422 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

party. He opened wide the party door and urged them 
to come home. He was hailed as the deliverer. He 
was greeted everywhere by enthusiastic and cheering 
thousands. It was his last tour of Kansas, and it was a 
great satisfaction to his friends to be able to recall that 
it was much in the nature of a journey of triumph. 

When he could secure a stenographer he worked at 
his correspondence for hours at night after his speeches. 
At Medicine Lodge, the home of Jerry Simpson, he ad- 
dressed a multitude in the afternoon of October 12, his 
birthday, speaking two hours. At night there was an- 
other meeting, at which his address was about the same 
as that of the afternoon. The meeting closed about 
eleven o'clock. He dictated letters until one o'clock, 
when he took a freight train for Attica, where he ar- 
rived but little before davlight and did not go to bed. 
He dictated letters until late in the morning, when he 
secured a team and drove to Anthony. At that town he 
repeated the work of the preceding day. 

It is difficult to realize the intensity of the political 
feeling of those times. J. S. West, afterwards Justice 
of the Kansas Supreme Court, arranged for Plumb to 
address a meeting at Walnut, Crawford County, on the 
20th of October. An enormous crowd assembled. 
Plumb arrived about noon. He was met at the train by 
a procession headed by a wagon on which was an old- 
fashioned fanning mill. Attending the mill were two 
men, one personating Senator Peffer, the other Jerry 
Simpson. While Simpson turned the crank to generate 
heavy currents of wind, supposed to be the principal 
asset of the Populist party, Senator Peffer fed into the 
hopper large quantities of paper to represent fiat money; 
and he cried with a lusty voice, "My people; oh, my 
people!" The wind from the mill spread the bits of 
paper broadcast, and they were scrambled for by the 
crowd led by a man dressed in female attire and purport- j 
ing to be Mrs. Lease. This joyful throng escorted Plumb 



THE LAST CAMPAIGN 128 

to the platform, where he delivered an address, talking 
two and a quarter hours. It was a great speech and lie 
was constantly cheered. 

For size this meeting was surpassed by that held 
at Oswego, where the enthusiasm was equally marked. 
From this point his route carried him north alQDg 
the eastern border of the State. On the 21st he 
had a meeting at Parker, Linn County. This meeting 
was at night, and the crowd was so large that most of 
it could not get into the building to hear him. For the 
22d he had appointments at Osawatomie, Ottawa, and 
Paola. He drove eighteen miles to Osawatomie and 
spoke in the forenoon. Then he went by train to Ottawa, 
where he arrived late and began his address without his 
dinner, although he had eaten no breakfast. At Ottawa 
there were thousands of cheering people to meet him. 
After he had spoken for an hour he called J. N. Harrison 
to the platform and directed him to procure a carriage 
and have it waiting, and in the carriage a lunch. He 
spoke an hour and a half longer, entered the carriage, 
and was driven twenty-five miles to Paola, and ate the 
lunch on the road. 

At Paola he went directly from the carriage to the 
stage in the opera house. The representative of the 
Topeka Capital described this meeting by saying, " Sen- 
ator Plumb spoke here last night. . . . The opera house 
was crowded full of people and thousands turned away." 
He was on the rostrum nearly three hours. After the 
meeting while going through the public square to a 
hotel he was seized with a fainting or extreme dizziness 
and would have fallen headlong but for the support 
of those about him. The following morning he was 
joined by Harrison and went by train to Olathe, where 
he addressed a large meeting. Late in the afternoon he 
went to Holliday, on the Kansas River, where Harrison, 
who was still with him, secured a water-logged boat 
which Plumb paddled across the river. Then they 



424 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

walked through fields in the darkness to Edwardsville, 
arriving near nine o'clock. The audience had given up 
the meeting, supposing he would not come. On leaving 
the building they heard someone hallooing far afield, 
and waited. It was Plumb. He spoke for two hours. 

On the 24th Plumb was at Valley Falls, where he 
was interviewed by Harold T. Chase, afterwards editor 
of the Topcka Capital. He said he had spoken in forty 
counties and had been " greeted with large audiences 
and encouraging enthusiasm," and believed the Repub- 
lican party would gain twenty per cent, of the Alliance 
vote of the State, and that the Alliance would not carry 
half the counties it had won the previous year. The 
trouble in Kansas was, he said, that everybody had 
gone violently into speculation in 1886-88, then crops 
failed. Everybody was in debt, and the Populist party 
resulted. 

On the 29th of October Plumb addressed a large meet- 
ing at Minneapolis in the north-central part of the 
State. There were two addresses, as there had been at 
many places. The weather was bad. It was stormy 
and cold. The next morning it was blowing a gale and 
the air w T as filled with a half-sleet, half-rain. Plumb 
had an appointment at Lincoln that day. It was neces- 
sary to drive. W. A. Johnston, afterwards Chief Justice 
Kansas Supreme Court, remonstrated with him, and 
said he could not make it. Plumb said the people would 
expect him and that he must go — that he could make 
it all right. He got the best team he could find at 
Minneapolis, and then made inquiry as to where he 
might find farmers who had good teams. He would 
exhaust one team, then drive up to a farmhouse, ex- 
plain the situation and get another team. This he kept 
up through mud and rain and sleet, and got into Lin- 
coln on time and kept his appointment. And, so it was, 
day after day. It is inconceivable that a man could 
live under such a strain. 






THE LAST CAMPAIGN 426 

Of bis work the Topeka Capital said: 

If any doubt existed as lo whether Senator Plumb was dis- 
posed to talk straight Republican doctrine to the Alliance and 
to dissect the sub-treasury aud other fallacies with a b 
scalpel, his tremendous work should dispel them. Senator 
Plumb is making the strongest campaign he ever made in 
Kansas. . . . His speeches are aimed at ex-Bepublicau Alliance 
men and hit the mark. He speaks twice a day, mainly on the 
sub-treasury and land-loan propositions, which he treats heroic- 
ally, his exposition of the dangers and errors involved in them 
being thorough and straight from the shoulder. In a two-hour 
speech, chiefly confined to these subjects, be turns the light of 
history and common-sense upon the Alliance demands, and is 
bringing back into the fold hundreds of old Republicans who 
went oft' after false gods last year in too much of a hurry and 
are now heartily repentant and glad to get home. 

Senator Plumb's long service for Kansas, his great experience 
and wide information attract large audiences wherever he 
speaks. He is a terrific and tireless worker, and his present 
campaign, by the third of November, will have been no less 
remarkable than that of Major McKinley in Ohio. At great 
trouble and no little sacrifice of personal comfort he has suc- 
ceeded in filling successive appointments at widely separated 
towns. . . . He is greeted with large audiences and increasing 
enthusiasm. 

When the returns came in the results of the campaign 
were summed up by the Capital iu the following 
headlines : 

REDEEMED! 

The Glorious State of Kansas emancipated from the 
Thraldom of Ignorant Blatherskites. — The News Con- 
firmed. — That the people have awakened to a sense of 
Degradation and Disgrace Imposed by the Alliance. — 
From Nearly Every Precinct Come the Joyful Tidings 
of Republican Victory. — Nine Judicial Contests. — 
And only One Alliance Judge Elected. — A Lesson Not 
Soon to be Forgotten. — Mountebanks Squelched. — 
And the Oracles of Anarchy, Communism, Fiat Money 
and Repudiation Overthrown. — Stalwart Republican- 



42G THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

j sm> — The Medicine Necessary to Remove the Dreadful 
Scourge of Peffer, Simpson & Co. 

The work of the campaign told heavily on the health 
of Senator Plumb. It may be said to have cost him his 
life. In less than two months after it closed he was 
in his grave. 



CHAPTER LXIX 

LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH 

Senator Plumb was in declining health all the last 
year of his life. There were periods when he found it 
impossible to sleep, and symptoms of paralysis gave him 
deep concern. It was his intention to cross the Atlantic 
in the summer of 1891, but the political conditions in 
Kansas caused him to abandon his voyage and enter 
the State campaign, in which he worked as even he had 
never worked before. More than once that summer he 
lapsed into unconsciousness from the great strain under 
which he constantly labored. 

In November he went to Washington to put his af- 
fairs in order for the coming session of Congress. There 
his friends soon became apprehensive of his complete 
collapse, and urged a cessation of work. Senator Petti- 
grew found him lying ill in his apartments with a 
foreboding of the near approach of death strong upon 
him. But he was not much disturbed by the shadow of 
the grim specter, and said he had no desire to live be- 
yond the permanent impairment of his powers. " My 
right hand refuses to respond to my will," he said as he 
requested Pettigrew to place a roll of money in his 
pocket for him. His sleeplessness continued, vertigo 
had already appeared, and he complained of persistent 
pains in his head, impairment of memory, and the in- 
ability to express his ideas clearly. His physician told 
him that apoplexy was imminent, and that he must quit 
work and take a long rest. 1 






lFrora a statement made by the doctor is copied the following: 
Senator Plumb consulted me on December 9. He then complained 

427 



428 THE LIFE OF PEESTON B. PLUMB 

About this time as one of bis friends turned to go in 
at bis own gate, at tbe end of a walk with bini, Senator 
Plumb said, "Do not leave me; I do not know just 
wbere I am." On tbe Thursday before bis death tbe 
Senator requested tbis same friend to call a cab and 
accompany bim to tbe CapitoL As tbey were leaving 
tbe room Plumb said, " Please take my arm ; whenever 
I look down my eyes become blurred and I grow dizzy." 
He was assisted to the Senate elevator, and all that day 
worked with his usual determination. 

On Saturday Senator Plumb went with Senator Quay 
to Philadelphia to consult a physician who was at the 
time treating his eldest son, who went with bim to the 
physician's office, which they left together. As they 
were passing along the street the Senator came near 
falling into an open areaway, and, when prevented, told 
his son that half his sight was gone — that he could see 
objects only to his right. When he arrived at his lodg- 
ings in Washington that same evening at six o'clock his 
landlady inquired about his son, and after hearing of 
his condition asked, " And what did the doctor say about 
your own condition?" to which he replied with evident 
regret, " Well, madam, I must throw up the sponge." 



of vertigo, persistent pain in tbe head, chiefly located in the forehead, 
Impaired memory, growing inability to express bis ideas with appro- 
priate words, impaired vision, sleeplessness, and derangement of the 
functions of the stomach and bowels. I noticed more or less confusion 
of ideas in conversation, and an uncertain and staggering gait iu 
walking. A thorough examination made as to the condition of his 
kidneys found them sound. His eyes had been examined by an ocu- 
list, but no glasses prescribed that gave any relief to his vision. The 
liver and stomach bad been carefully explored without discovering 
anything further than functional derangement. My conclusion as to 
the nature of the case was that there was textural alterations in the 
brain, probably of an atheromatous nature. He was advised to give 
up work at once, and to sock rest, and change, for ultimate recupera- 
tion. This advice it was the Senator's intention to adopt in a few 
days, as soon as pressing engagements permitted. 



LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH 129 

And notwithstanding thai lie was then Buffering from 

a severe headache he worked an hour at his correspond' 
ence, dictating replies to letters requiring immediate at- 
tention. After signing his letters he went, about Beven 
o'clock, to a dinner given at Chamberlain's Bote] by 

ex-Senator Mahone to a few friends. On the way there 
he met Colonel Ayres, who remonstrated with him for 
continuing at work while in such poor health. The 
Senator said he knew Colonel Ayres was right, ami that 
his physician had just told him so; ami that on the next 
afternoon he was to return to Philadelphia to remain 
six weeks under the immediate care and direction of a 
physician. 

It was one o'clock Sunday morning when Senator 
Flumb left Chamberlain's. At exactly two o'clock he 
knocked at the door of the bedroom of his landlord, a 
Mr. Jennings, saying, "I am a very sick man; I wish 
you would hurry down and look at me." The landlord 
found him extremely nervous and suffering from an 
excruciating headache. While such domestic remedies 
as were at hand were being applied a physician was 
hastily summoned, who administered morphine by hypo- 
dermic injection. This promptly induced what seemed 
a natural sleep, which continued to six forty-five, just 
fifteen minutes after the doctor had left the chamber to 
go home. At that minute he sprang suddenly from bed 
and vomited violently, in doing which he complained 
that his head was sensitive and sore to the touch of his 
attending landlord. As he was assisted to bed, three or 
four minutes later, he exclaimed, " Oh, my head ! my 
head!" his last words in this world. Mr. Jennings re- 
mained with him until ten minutes past ten o'clock, 
during which time he slept apparently peacefully and 
naturally. 

The clerk of the Senate Committee on Fublic Lands 
was B. F. Flenniken, and he served Senator Plumb in 



430 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

the capacity of private secretary for many years. On 
Saturday night Plumb wrote him as follows : 

Dear Franlc: 

Please come to my room to-morrow (Sunday) about ten 

o'clock. Yours truly, 

P. B. P. 

Those were the last words he ever penned. The note 
was delivered to Mr. Flenniken about nine o'clock. 
There was visiting at his house, when it arrived, Colonel 
E. C. Manning, long an intimate friend of Senator 
Plumb, and who had been in his service in private busi- 
ness matters at various times. He was shown the Sen- 
ator's note, and its appearance alarmed him. The lines 
dropped down to the right as they crossed the page. 
He knew the precarious condition of Senator Plumb's 
health, and he said he would also go up there the next 
morning. 

k When Flenniken arrived he was informed of the seri- 
ous illness of Senator Plumb, and of the events of the pre- 
ceding night; and the directions of the doctor were 
repeated to him. As the Senator seemed to sleep so 
peacefully Mr. Flenniken busied himself with the morn- 
ing mail, which he had brought with him, answering 
letters and mailing those he found written and signed. 
In half an hour the Senator began to breathe heavily, 
and was turned on his side without awakening. In a few 
minutes the stertorous breathing began again. Colonel 
Manning did not like the recurrence of the labored 
breathing, and said the doctor ought to be called at 
once — and went out to fetch him. But the physician 
came in almost immediately, Colonel Manning having 
passed him on the street. The breathing of the patient 
was then audible in the halls and about his room. The 
landlord came down and the doctor said to him, " This is 
apoplexy. The Senator is a very sick man. Have you 
any whisky?" There was no whisky in the house, and 



LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH 1..! 

Mr. Jennings went out for some. When he returned 
with it he was told that the Senator was past help. 1 [e 
died at ten minutes to twelve o'clock. It was Sunday, 
December 20, 1891. 



CHAPTER LXX 

THE LAST KITES 

At the hour of Senator Plumb's death many persons 
in official life at Washington were at church, at the 
moment difficult of access, and intelligence of his un- 
timely end spread slowly over the city. Mr. Flenniken 
notified Senator Peffer, who hurried to the chamber of 
his dead colleague. 

Early in the afternoon Senators and other officials 
began to arrive, the first of whom was Vice-President 
Morton and Senator Cameron and his wife. Others fol- 
lowed quickly and in increasing numbers; a throng of 
mourners stood silently in the street about the dead 
Senator's door. 1 His death was a shock, and the im- 
pression it produced was profound. 

Mrs. Plumb was at home in Emporia just recovering 
from a severe illness. Two of her daughters were with 
her. The youngest son and daughter were away at 
school, and the eldest son was in Philadelphia. 

The funeral arrangements were completed on Sunday 
evening at a meeting held at the residence of Vice-Presi- 
dent Morton, at which were present the Vice-President, 
Senator Manderson, Secretary McCook, Sergeant-at- 
Arms Valentine and his assistant, Charles B. Eeade. 
Early Monday morning the body was placed in a cedar 
casket covered with black cloth, and which bore a silver 
plate with this inscription, 

PRESTON B. PLUMB 

Born October 12, 1837 

Died December 20, 1891 

« No. 612 Fourteenth Street, N. W. 

432 



THE LAST KITES I.;:; 

At ten o'clock the Capitol police by direction of an 
assistant to the Sergeant-at-Anns, removed the casket 
to the Capitol, where it was placed in a room to the rear 
of the Senate Chamber. The Senate met at noon. 
After a few remarks, feelingly spoken by Senator Peffer, 
he offered resolutions expressing regret for the death of 
Senator riumb and providing for a committee of five 
Senators to have, in conjunction with certain members 
of the House, direction of the funeral. 3 

A recess was then taken until one o'clock, and as thai 
hour approached Cabinet officers and their Assistants 
began to arrive. At one-twenty the Speaker and mem- 
bers of the Douse were announced. A few minutes later 
the Diplomatic Corps arrived, and were followed by the 
members of the Supreme Court. The President and his 
Cabinet entered the Senate Chamber at one-thirty. Ten 
minutes later the official committee 3 appeared at the 
main entrance escorting the body of the dead Senator, 
which was deposited on a catafalque in front of the 
Clerk's desk. On the casket were placed beautiful 
floral offerings. The Chaplain conducted the funeral 
service and read appropriate selections from the Scrip- 
tures, ending with the recitation of the poem, beginning. 

Oh, to be ready when death shall come — • 

and closing with a prayer. When the prayer was con- 
cluded the Vice-President rose and directed the Ser- 
geant-at-Arms to accompany the body of the late Senator 
to his home in Kansas. The assemblage rose. The 
body was borne out through the corridors to the East 
Front of the Capitol and down the marble stairway. 



2 The Senators appointed were Peffer, Dolph, Paddock, Ransom, 
and Palmer. 

sit had been completed by the appointment of M<^<rs. Broderick 
and Funston of Kansas; Cate and Peel of Arkansas; Yonmans of 
Michigan ; Post of Illinois, and CogBwell of Massachusetts, on the 
part of the House. 



434 THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

The President and his Cabinet with other officials, fol- 
lowed to the station of the Pennsylvania Kailroad. 
Two private cars there awaited the funeral cortege, and 
these were attached to the train which left the city at 
three twenty-five. The dead Senator was on his way to 
Kansas, to the State for which he had done so much, his 
own people for whom it might be said that he gave his 
life. 

The death of Plumb moved Kansas as that of no other 
man ever did. It was as though the end of order had 
come. The grief w T as profound, and manifestations of 
sorrow appeared on every hand. The State officers 
petitioned Mrs. Plumb for permission to have the body 
of the Senator lie in state at Topeka for a day. This 
being granted, the State-bouse was draped in mourning. 
On Wednesday morning the State officials met the 
funeral train at Kansas City. At Topeka the body was 
escorted to the Senate Chamber by the Grand Army, 
Knights Templar, members of the Eleventh Kansas, and 
a great concourse of citizens. Fifteen thousand people 
waited on the Capitol grounds. The Senate Chamber 
was profusely decorated, and when the casket was de- 
posited at the rostrum it was almost buried in banks of 
flowers. And it was there draped with the old battle- 
flag of Colonel Plumb's regiment, faded by long and 
hard usage and rent and torn in many battles. The 
great crowd which surged about the State-house was 
formed into line and marched double-file by the casket, 
viewing for the last time the face of the dead Senator. 
At four-twenty the funeral train left Topeka for 
Emporia. 

Darkness was falling, when the train, at six fifty-five, 
reached its destination. But in the descending gloom 
of a winter's day stood the people of the town waiting 
to receive their honored and beloved dead. The body 
was escorted to the now desolate home by resident mem- 
bers of the Eleventh Kansas, and followed by civic 



THE LAST RITES 486 

bodies and the multitude of people. Sentries from the 
Emporia Companies of the Eleventh Kansas patroled 
the street in front of the home until the body was re- 
moved to the chnreh on the following day. 

The 24th of December was one of those ideal winter 
days seen rarely except on the Great Plains. It was 
the day upon which fell the solemn duty of sorrowing 
hearts and loving hands to commit to earth all that 
was mortal of Senator Plumb. A great throng as- 
sembled. There stood men who had crossed the prairies 
with him to fight for freedom in Kansas. Hero were 
the men who had hauled with ox-teams his printing 
presses from the Missouri River. Trains came from all 
quarters bearing men who had settled far out on the 
public domain because of his faith in the future of 
Kansas and the growth and greatness of America. 
I3ere w T ere the men and women who had followed him 
to the frontier and helped him build a city. And these 
women had put into his hands a flag wrought by them- 
selves and had given into his charge and keeping these 
very men to go forth and do battle that the Republic 
might live. All these men had seen him develop with 
an expanding nation, had aided in his elevation to high 
state, had seen him become a great national figure, had 
seen him challenge the powers of oppression and stand 
as the shield of the downtrodden — and had been his 
sustaining strength and inspiration and power through 
it all. 

The services attending the burial of Senator Plumb 
began at his home. From there the body was taken to 
; the First Congregational Church, where the funeral 
sermon was delivered by Dr. Richard Cordley, for many 
years an intimate friend of the Senator. From the 
church the funeral procession was as follows: 

Marshal and staff, mounted. 

Band. 

Kansas National Guards. 



43G THE LIFE OF PRESTON B. PLUMB 

Department Commander and Staff. 

Post of G. A. R. and old soldiers. 

Sons of Veterans. 

Pall-bearers in carriages. 

Hearse. Eleventh Kansas marching on each" side. 

Horse and equipment of Senator Plumb. 

Family in carriages. 

Knights Templar. 

Senatorial and Congressional Committees. 

Governor and Staff in carriages. 

Visitors and citizens in carriages. 

At the grave the services of the Grand Army of the 
Republic were concluded in the falling shades of night. 
And Senator Plumb slept, where, of all places in the 
world he would have selected for his last resting-place, 
on the gentle swell of a Kansas prairie. 

Spirits of old that bore me, 

And set me, meek of mind, 
Between great dreams before me, 

And deeds as great behind, 
Knowing humanity my star 

As first abroad I ride, 
Shall help me wear, with every scar, 

Honor at eventide. 

Let claws of lightning clutch me 

From summer's groaning cloud, 
Or ever malice touch me, 

And glory make me proud. 
give my youth, my faith, my sword, 

Choice of the heart's desire : 
A short life in the saddle, Lord ! 

Not long life by the fire. 



APPENDICES 



ArPEXDIX A 

Full text of the Act of general revision of the land 
laws of the United States, and a part of < ihapter LV1 1 1, 
which see, especially Note 5 to said Chapter. 

The bill was presented to the Senate as a conference 
report and was unanimously concurred in February 28, 
1891. The managers on the part of the Senate were 
Plumb, Pettigrew, and Walthal ; on the part of the 
House, L. E. Payson, J. A. Pickler and Williams S. 
Holman. The law was approved March 3, 1891. It ifi 
as follows as shown by the report submitted t<> the 
senate by Plumb and to the House by Payson : 

The committee of conference on the disagreeing votes of the two 
Houses on the amendments of the Senate to tin • hill (II. K. 7254) to 
repeal timber-culture laws, and for other purposes, haying met, after 
full and free conference have agreed to recommend and do recommend 
to their respective Houses as follows : 

That the House recede from its disagreements to the amendments 
of the Senate and agree to the same with amendments as follows; so 
that the bill as amended will read: 

Be it enacted, etc. That an act entitled "An act to amend :in net 
entitled 'An act to encourage the growth of timber on the Western 
prairies,' approved June 14, 1S7S, and all laws supplementary then 
or amendatory thereof, be and the same are hereby, repealed. Pro- 
vided. That this repeal shall not affect any valid rights heretofore 
accrued or accruing under said laws, but all bona tide claims lawfully 
initiated before the passage of this act may be perfected upon due 
compliance with law, in the same manner, apOD the Bame terms and 
conditions and subject to the same limitations, forfeitures, ami eon- 
tests as if this act had not been passed: And provided further, 
That the following words of the last clause of Bectlon 2 of said at, 
namely, "That not less than twenty-seven hundred trees were plant I 
on each acre," are hereby repealed: And provided further, That, in 
computing the period of cultivation, the time shall run from the d 
of the entry if the necessary acts of cultivation were performed 
within the proper time; And provided furthi r, That the preparation 
of the land and the planting of trees shall be construed as acta of 
cultivation, and the time authorized to he so employed and actually 
employed shall be computed as a part of the eighl yen- of cultiva- 
tion required by statute: Provided. That any person who lias made 

439 



440 APPENDIX A 

entry of any public lands of the United States tinder the timber- 
culture laws, and who has for a period of four years in good faith 
complied with the provisions of said laws and who is an actual bona 
fide resident of the State or Territory in which said land is located, 
shall be entitled to make final proof thereto, and acquire title to the 
same, by the payment of $1.25 per acre for such tract, under such 
rules and regulations as shall be prescribed by the Secretary of the 
Interior, and registers and receivers shall be allowed the same fees 
and compensation for final proofs in timber-culture entries as is now 
allowed by law in homestead entries : And provided further, That no 
land acquired under the provisions of this act shall in any event 
become liable to the satisfaction of any debt or debts contracted 
prior to the issuing of the final certificate therefor. 

Sec. 2. That an act to provide for the sale of desert lands in certain 
States and Territories, approved March 3, 1S77, is hereby amended 
by adding thereto the following sections: 

Sec. 4. That at the time of filing the declaration hereinbefore re- 
quired the party shall also file a map of said land, which shall exhibit 
a plan showing the mode of contemplated irrigation, and which plan 
shall be sufficient to thoroughly irrigate and reclaim said land, and 
prepare it to raise ordinary agricultural crops, and shall also show 
the source of the water to be used for irrigation and reclamation. 
Persons entering or proposing to enter separate sections, or fractional 
parts of sections, of desert lands may associate together in the con- 
struction of canals and ditches for irrigation and reclaiming all of 
said tracts, and may file a joint map or maps showing their plan for 
internal improvements. 

Sec. 5. That no land shall be patented to any person under this 
act unless he or his assignors shall have expended in the necessary 
irrigation, reclamation and cultivation thereof, by means of main 
canals and branch ditches, and in permanent improvements upon the 
land, and in the purchase of water rights for the irrigation of same, 
at least $3 per acre of whole tract reclaimed and patented in the 
manner following: Within one year after making entry for such 
tract of desert land as aforesaid the party so entering shall expend 
not less than $1 per acre for the purpose aforesaid : and he shall in 
like manner expend the sum of $1 per acre during the second and 
also during the third year thereafter, until the full sum of $3 per 
acre is so expended. Said party shall file during each year with 
the register proof by the affidavits of two or more credible witnesses, 
that the full sum of .$1 per acre has been expended in such necessary 
Improvements during said year, and the manner in which expended, 
and at the expiration of the third year a map or plan showing the 
character and extent of such improvements. If any party who has 
made such application shall fail during any year to file the testimony 
aforesaid the lands shall revert to the United States, and the twenty- 
live cents advanced payment shall be forfeited to the United States, 
and the entry shall he canceled. Nothing herein contained shall pre- 
vent a claimant from making his final entry and receiving his patent 



APPENDIX A ill 

nt an oniiicr date than hereinbefore prescribed, provided thai be then 
makes the required proof of reclamation to the aggregate extenl of 
$3 per aero : Provided, Thai proof be Further required of tin' cultiva* 

tion of one-eighth of the land. 

Sec. G. That this act shall not affed any valid rights beretof 
accrued under said act of March .".. 1877, but all bona Ode claims 
heretofore lawfully initiated may lie perfected, upon due compliance 
with the provisions of said act, in the same manner, and DDOO 
same terms and conditions, and subject to the same limitations; for- 
feitures, and contests as if this act had not been passed, or 
claims, at the option of the claimant, may lie perfected and patented 
under the provisions of said act as amended by this act, so far as 
applicable; and all acts and parts of acts in conflict with this ad are 
hereby repealed. 

Sec. 7. That at any time after filing the declaration, and within the 
period of four years, thereafter, upon making satisfactory proof to 
the register and the receiver of the reclamation and cultivation of 
said land to the extent and cost and in the manner aforesaid, and 
substantially in accordance with the plans herein provided for, and 
that he or she is a citizen of the United States, and upon payment to 
the receiver of the additional sum of SI per acre fur said land, a 
patent shall issue therefor to the applicant or his assigns. But no 
person or association of persons shall hold by assignment or other- 
wise, prior to the issue of patent, more than 320 acres of BUCh arid 
or desert lands, but this section shall not apply to entries made nr 
initiated prior to the approval of this act: Provided, %0%a w r. That 
additional proof may be required at any time within the period pre- 
scribed by law, and that the claims or entries made under this or any 
preceding act shall be subject to contest, as provided by the law re- 
lating to homestead cases, for illegal inception, abandonment, or fail- 
ure to comply with the requirements of law, and upon satisfactory 
proof thereof shall be canceled, and the lands, and moneys paid 
therefor shall be forfeited to the United States. 

Sec. 8. That the provisions of the act to which this is an amend- 
ment, and the amendments thereto, shall apply to and he in f 
in the State of Colorado, as well as the States named in the original 
act; and no person shall be entitled to make entry of desert land 
except he be a resident citizen of the State or Territory in which the 
land sought to be entered is located. 

Sec. 3. That section 2288 of the Revised Statutes be amended s.. as 
to read as follows : 

Sec. 2288. Any bona fide settler under the preemption, homestead, 
or other settlement law shall have the right to transfer, by warranty 
against his own acts, arty portion of his claim for church, cemetery, or 
school purposes, or for the right of way of railroads, canalfl 
voirs, or ditches for irrigation or drainage across it ; and the trans- 
fer, for such public purposes, shall in no way vitiate the right to 
complete and perfect the title of his claim. 

Sec. 4. That chapter 4 of Title XXXII, excepting sections 2275, 



442 APPENDIX A 

2276, 22S0 of the Revised Statutes of the United States and all other 
laws allowing preemption of the public lands of the United States, are 
hereby repealed, but all bona fide claims lawfully initiated before the 
passage of this act, under any of said provisions of law so repealed, 
may be perfected upon due compliance with law in the same manner, 
upon the same terms and conditions, and subject to the same limita- 
tions, forfeitures and contests, as if this act had not been passed. 

Sec. 5. That sections 2289 and 2290, in said chapter numbered 5 
of the Revised Statutes, be, and the same are hereby, amended, so 
that they shall read as follows : 

Sec. 22S9. Every person who is the head of a family, or who has 
arrived at the age of twenty-one years, and is a citizen of the United 
States, or who has filed his declaration of intention to become such, 
as required by the naturalization laws, shall be entitled to enter one 
quarter-section, or a less quantity, of unappropriated public lands, to 
be located in a body in conformity to the legal subdivisions of the 
public lands ; but no person who is the proprietor of more than 160 
acres of land in any State or Territory shall acquire any right under 
the homestead law. And every person owning and residing on land, 
may, under the provisions of this section, enter other land lying con- 
tiguous to his land, which shall not, with the land so already owned 
and occupied, exceed in the aggregate 160 acres. 

Sec. 2290. That any person applying to enter land under the pre- 
ceding section shall first make and subscribe before the proper officer 
and file in the proper land office an affidavit that he or she is the 
head of a family, or is over twenty-one years of age, and that such 
application is honestly and in good faith made for the purpose of 
actual settlement and cultivation, and not for the benefit of any other 
person, persons, or corporation, and that he or she will faithfully 
and honestly endeavor to comply with all the requirements of law 
as to settlement and residence, and cultivation necessary to acquire 
title to the land applied for ; that he or she is not acting as agent of 
any person, corporation, or syndicate in making such entry, nor in 
collusion with any person, corporation or syndicate to give them the 
benefit of the land entered, or any part thereof, or the timber thereon ; 
that he or she does not apply to enter the same for the purpose of 
speculation, but in good faith to obtain a home for himself or herself, 
and that he or she has not directly or indirectly made, and will not 
make, any agreement, or contract, in any way or manner, with any 
person or persons, corporation, or syndicate whatsoever, by which 
the title which he or she might acquire from the Government of the 
United States should inure, in whole or in part, to the benefit of any 
person, except himself or herself; and upon filing such affidavit with 
the register or receiver, on payment of .$:*> when the entry is not more 
than 80 acres, and on payment of $10 when the entry is for not more 
than 160 acres, he or she shall thereupon be permitted to enter the 
amount of land specified." 

Sec. 6. That section 2.')01 of the Revised Statutes be amended so as 
to read as follows: 



APPENDIX A li:: 

Sec. 2301. Nothing in this chapter sh:ill be 10 construed 11 to I'l' 1 '- 
vent any person who shall hereafter aval] himself <>r the benefit! of 
section 2289 from paying the minimum price for the quantity "f land 
so entered at any time after the expiration of fourteen calendar 
months from the date of such entry, and obtaining a patent therefor, 
upon making proof of settlement and of residence and cultivation tor 
such period of fourteen months; and the provision of thi* section 
shall apply to lands on the ceded portion of the Bloui reservation by 
act approved March 2, 1889, in South Dakota, but shall not relli 
said settlers from any payments now required by law. 

Sec. 7. That whenever it shall appear to the Commissioner of the 
General Land Office that a clerical error has been committed In the 
entry of any of the public lands, such entry may be suspended, upon 
proper notification to the claimant, through the local land office, until 
the error has been corrected; and all entries made under the pre- 
emption, homestead, desert-land, or timber-culture laws, in which 
final proof and payment may have been made and certificates Issued, 
and to which there are no adverse claims originating prior to final 
entry, and which have been sold or encumbered prior to the l-t day 
of March, 18SS, and after final entry, to bona fide purchasers or in- 
cumbrancers, for a valuable consideration, shall, unless opon an 
Investigation by a Government agent fraud on the part Of the 
purchaser has been found, be confirmed and patented upon presenta- 
tion of satisfactory proof to the Land Department of such sale or 
incumbrance: Provided, That after the lapse of two years from tin- 
date of issuance of the receiver's receipt upon the final entry of any 
tract of land under the homestead, timber-culture, desert land or pre- 
emption laws, or under this act, and when there shall bo no pending 
contest or protest against the validity of such entry, the entryman 
shall be entitled to a patent conveying the land by him entered, and 
the same shall be issued to him; but this proviso shall not be con- 
strued to require the delay of two years from the date of said entry 
before the issuing of a patent therefor. 

Sec. 8. That suits by the United States to vacate and annul any 
patent heretofore issued shall only be brought within Wvo years from 
the passage of this act and suits to vacate and annul patents !:• 
after issued shall only be brought within six years after the date of 
the issuance of such patents. And in the States of Colorado. Mon- 
tana, Idaho, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Wyoming and in the 
District of Alaska and the gold and silver regions of Nevada, and 
the Territory of Utah, in any criminal prosecution or civil action by 
the United States for trespass on such public timber lands or to re- 
cover timber or lumber cut thereon, it shall be a defense if the 
defendant shall show that the said timber was cut or removed from 
the timber lands for use in such State or Territory by a resident 
thereof for agriculture, mining, manufacturing, or domestic purpo 
and has not been transported out of the same; but nothing herein 
contained shall apply to operate to enlarge the rights of any railway 
company to cut timber on the public domain: Provided, That the 



444 ArPENDIX A 

Secretary of the Interior may make suitable rules and regulations 
to carry out the provisions of this section. 

Sec. 9. That hereafter no public lands of the United States, except 
abandoned military or other reservations, isolated and disconnected 
fractional tracts authorized to be sold by section 2455 of the Re- 
vised Statutes, and mineral and other lands, the sale of which at 
public auction has been authorized by acts of Congress of a special 
nature, having local application, shall be sold at public sale. 

Sec. 10. That nothing in this act shall change, repeal or modify 
any agreements or treaties made with any Indian tribes for the dis- 
posal of their lands or of land ceded to the United States to be dis- 
posed of for the benefit of such tribes, and the proceeds thereof to be 
placed in the Treasury of the United States ; and the disposition of 
such lands shall continue in accordance with the provisions of such 
treaties or agreements, except as provided in section 5 of this act. 

See. 11. That until otherwise ordered by Congress lands in Alaska 
may be entered for town-site purposes, for the several use and benefit 
of the occupants of such town-sites, by such trustee or trustees as 
may be named by the Secretary of the Interior for that purpose, such 
entries to be made under the provisions of Section 23S7 of the Revised 
Statutes as near as may be; and when such entries shall have been 
made the Secretary of the Interior shall provide by regulation for 
the proper execution of the trust in favor of the inhabitants of the 
town-site, including the survey of the land into lots, according to the 
spirit and intent of said section 2387 of the Revised Statutes, whereby 
the same results would be reached as though the entry had been made 
by a county judge and the disposal of the lots in such town-site, and 
the proceeds of the sale thereof had been prescribed by the legislative 
authority of a State or Territory : Provided, That no more than G10 
acres shall be embraced in one town-site entry. 

Sec. 12. That any citizen of the United States twenty-one years of 
age, and any association of such citizens, and any corporation incor- 
porated under the laws of the United States or of any State or Terri- 
tory of the United States now authorized by law to hold lands in the 
Territories now or hereafter in possession of and occupying public 
lands in Alaska for the purpose of trade or manufactures, may 
purchase not exceeding 1G0 acres, to be taken as near as practicable 
in a square form, of such land at $2.50 per acre : Provided, That in 
case more than one person, association, or corporation shall claim 
the same tract of land the person, association, or corporation having 
the prior claim by reason of possession and continued occupation shall 
be entitled to purchase the same; but the entry of no person, associa- 
tion, or corporation shall include improvements made by or in posses- 
sion of another prior to the passage of this act. 

Sec. 13. That it shall be the duty of any person, association, or cor- 
poration entitled to purchase land under this act to make an applica- 
tion to the United States Marshal, ex-offldo surveyor general of 
Alaska, for an estimate of cost of making a survey of the lands occu- 



APPENDIX A 146 

pied by such person, association, or corporation, and the COSl of the 
clerical work necessary to be done In the office of the said 
States Marshal, ex-offlcio surveyor general; and on recelpl of such 

estimate from the United states Marshal, e&ofllcto surveyor general, 
the said person, association, or corporation shall deposit the amount 
In a United states depository, as lie is required by section numtx 
2401, Revised Statutes, relating to deposits for surveys. 

That on the receipt of the United States Marshal em-offlcto surve y o r 
general of the said certificates of deposit, be shall employ a competent 
person to make such survey, under Buch rules and regulations as may 
be adopted by the Secretary of the Interior, who shall make his return 
of his field notes and maps to the office of the said United States 
Marshal, cx-oflicio surveyor general; and the said United States 
Marshal, cx-oflicio surveyor general shall cause the said Held doI 
plats of such survey to be examined, and, if correct, approve the sam.-, 
and shall transmit certified copies of such maps and plats to tin- office 
of the Commissioner of the General Land Office. 

Then when the said field notes and plats of said survey shall havo 
been approved by the said Commissioner of the General Land Office, 
he shall notify such person, association, or corporation, who shall 
then, within six months after such notice pay to the United St. 
Marshal, cx-ofjlvio surveyor general for sueh land, and patent shall 
issue for the same. 

Sec. 14. That none of the provisions of the last two preceding 
sections of this act shall be so construed as to warrant the sal.' of 
any lands belonging to the United States which shall contain coal or 
the precious metals, or any town-site, or which shall he occupied by 
the United States for public purposes, or which shall he reserved tor 
such purposes, or to which the natives of Alaska have prior rights 
by virtue of actual occupation, or which shall he selected by tin' 
United States Commissioner of Fish or Fisheries on the islands of 
Kadiak and Afognak for the purpose of establishing fish-culture sta- 
tions. And all tracts of laud uot exceeding i.'. in acres in any one 
tract now occupied as missionary stations in said District of Alaska 
are hereby excepted from the operation of the last three preceding 
sections of this act. No portion of (lie islands of the Pribylov Group 
or the seal islands of Alaska shall he subject to sale under this act; 
and the United States reserves, and there shall be reserved in all 
patents issued under the provisions of the last two preceding sections, 
the right of the United States to regulate the taking of salmon and to 
do all things necessary to protect and prevent the destruction 
salmon iu all the waters of the lands granted frequented by salmon. 

Sec. 15. That until otherwise provided by law the body of lands 
known as Annette Islands, situated in Alexander Arc! In 

Southern Alaska, on the north side of Dixon's Entrance, be, and the 
same is hereby, set apart as a reservation for the use of Matlakahtal 
Indians, and those people known as Matlakahtlans who have recently 
emigrated from British Columbia, to Alaska, and such other Alaskan 
natives as may join them to be held and used by them in common, 



446 APPENDIX A 

under such rules and regulations and subject to such restrictions as 
may be prescribed from time to time by the Secretary of the Interior. 

Sec. 16. That town-site entries may be made by incorporated towns 
and cities on the mineral land of the United States, but no title shall 
be acquired by any such towns or cities to any vein of gold, silver, 
cinnabar, copper, or lead, or to any valid mining claim or possession 
held under existing law. When mineral veins are possessed within 
the limits of an incorporated town or city, and such possession is 
recognized by local authority or by the laws of the United States, the 
title to town lots shall be subject to such recognized possession and 
the necessary use thereof, and when entry has been made or patent 
issued for such town-sites to such incorporated town or city, the 
possessor of such mineral vein may enter and receive patent for such 
mineral vein and the surface ground appertaining thereto : Pro- 
vided, That no entry shall be made by such mineral-vein claimant 
for surface ground where the owner or occupier of the surface ground 
shall have had possession of the same before the inception of the 
title of the mineral-vein applicant. 

Sec. 17. That reservoir sites located or selected and to be located 
and selected under the provisions of " An act making appropriations 
for sundry civil expenses of the Government for the fiscal year ending 
June 30, 1SS9, and for other purposes," and amendments thereto, shall 
be restricted to and shall contain only so much land as is actually 
necessary for the construction and maintenance of reservoirs, exclud- 
ing so far as practicable lands occupied by actual settlers at the date 
of the location of said reservoirs, and that the provision of " An act 
making appropriations for sundry civil expenses of the Government 
for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1891, and for other purposes, 
which reads as follows ; namely : ' No person who shall, after the 
passage of this act, enter upon any of the public lands with a view 
to occupation, entry, or settlement under any of the land laws, shall 
be permitted to acquire title to more than 320 acres in the aggregate 
under all said laws,' shall be construed to include in the maximum 
amount of lands the title to which is permitted to be acquired by one 
person only agricultural lands, and not to include lands entered or 
Bought to be entered under mineral-land laws." 

Sec. 18. That the right of way through the public lands and reserva- 
tions of the United States is hereby granted to any canal or ditch 
company formed for the purpose of irrigation and duly organized 
under the laws of any State or Territory which shall have filed, or 
may hereafter file, with the Secretary of the Interior a copy of its 
articles of incorporation, and due proofs of its organization under 
the same, to the extent of the ground occupied by the water of the 
reservoir, and of the canal and its laterals, and 50 feet on each side 
of the marginal limits thereof; also the right to take from the public 
land adjacent to the line of the canal or ditch material, earth and 
stone necessary for the construction of such canal or ditch, Provided, 
That no such right of way shall be so located as to interfere with the 
proper occupation by the Government of any such reservation; and 
all maps of location shall be subject to the approval of the Depart- 



APPENDIX A 117 

merit of the Government having Jurisdiction of su-ii reservation, and 

the privilege herein granted shall not be construed to Interfere with 
the control of water for irrigation and other purposes under authority 

of the respective States or Territories. 

Sec. 19. That any canal or ditch company desiring to secure the 
benefits of this act shall, within twelve months after the Location of 
ten miles of its canal, if the same be upon surveyed lands, and If 
upon unsurveyed lands, within twelve months alter the survey thereof 
by the United States, file with the register of the laud office for the 
district where such land is located a map of its canal or ditch and 
reservoir; and upon the approval thereof by the Secretary of the 
Interior the same shall be noted upon the plats in said office, and 
thereafter all such lands over which such rights of way shall pass 
shall be disposed of subject to such right of way. Whenever any 
person or corporation, in the construction of any canal, ditch, or 
reservoir, injures or damages the possession of any settler on the 
public domain, the party committing such injury or damage shall be 
liable to the party injured for such injury or damage. 

Sec. 20. That the provision of this act shall apply to all canals, 
ditches, or reservoirs, heretofore or hereafter constructed, whether 
constructed by corporations, individuals, or associations of individu- 
als, on the filing of the certificates and maps herein provided for. If 
such ditch, canal, or reservoir has been or shall be constructed by 
any individual or association of individuals, it shall be sufficient for 
such individual or association of individuals to file with the Secretary 
of the Interior, and with the register of the land office where said 
land is located, a map of the line of such canal, ditch, or reservoir, 
as in case of a corporation with the names of the individual owner or 
owners thereof, together with the articles of association, if any there 
I be. Plats heretofore filed shall have the benefits of the act from the 
date of their filing, as though filed under it: Provided, That if any 
section of said canal or ditch shall not be completed within five years 
after the location of said section, the rights herein granted shall be 
forfeited as to any uncompleted section of said canal, ditch or reser- 
voir to the extent that the same is not completed at the date of the 
forfeiture. 

Sec. 21. That nothing in this act shall authorize such canal or 
ditch company to occupy such right of way except for the purpose <.f 
said canal or ditch, and then only so far as may be necessary for the 
construction, maintenance, and care of said canal or ditch. 

Sec. 22. That the section of land reserved for the benefit of the 
Dakota Central Railroad Company, on the west bank of the Missouri 
River, at the mouth of Bad River, as provided by section Id of " An 
act to divide a portion of the reservation of the Sioux nation of 
Indians in Dakota into separate reservations, and t<> secure the 
relinquishment of the Indian title to the remainder, and f'>r other 
purposes," approved March 2, 18S9, shall be subject to entry under 
the town-site law only. 

Sec. 23. That in all cases where second entries <>f land on the 
Osage Indian trust and diminished reserve lands in Kansas, to which 



448 APPENDIX A 

at the time there were no adverse claims, have hccn made, and the 
law complied with as to residence and improvements, said entries he, 
and the same are hereby, confirmed, and in all cases where persons 
were actual settlers and residing upon their claims upon said Osage 
Indian trust and diminished reserve lands in the State of Kansas 
on the 9th day of May, 1872, and who have made subsequent pre- 
emption entries either upon public or upon said Osage Indian trust 
and diminished reserve lands upon which there were no legal prior 
adverse claims at the time, and the law complied with as to settle- 
ment, said subsequent entries be, and the same are hereby, confirmed. 
Sec. 24. That the President of the United States may from time 
to time set apart and reserve, in any State or Territory having public 
land bearing forests, in any part of the public lands wholly or in 
part covered with timber or undergrowth, whether of commercial 
value or not, as public reservations : and the President shall, by public 
proclamation, declare the establishment of such reservations and the 
limits thereof. 

P. B. Plumb, 
R. F. Pettigrew, 
E. C. Walthall, 
Managers on the part of the Senate. 
L. E. Payson, 
J. A. Pickleb, 
Wm. S. Holman, 
Managers on the part of the House. 



APPENDIX B 

The following tabic shows the Kansas Representation In the 

Congress of the United States: 

UNITED STATES SENATORS 

THE LANE SUCCESSION. 

James H. Lane, Lawrence, served from April 1, 1881, to July 11, 1808, 

Died Leavenworth, July 11, 1866. 
Edmund G. Ross, Lawrence, appointed to Bncceed Lane July 20, 1866. 

Elected to fill vacancy January 23, 1867. Berved until March, 

1871. 
Alexander Caldwell, Leavenworth, served from March, 1*71 until 

March, 1873, when he resigned. 
Robert Crozier, Leavenworth, appointed vice Caldwell, November 22, 

1873. Served until February 2, 1874. 
James M. Harvey, Vinton, served from February 2, 1874 until March, 

1877. 
Preston B. riumb, Emporia, elected January 31, 1877. Elected to two 

additional terms. Served until December 20, 1891. Died in 

Washington. 
Bishop W. Perkins, Oswego, appointed to succeed Plumb, January 1, 

1892. Served until March, 1803. 
John Martin, Topeka, elected January 2"., Ism.'',. Served until March, 

1895. 
Lucien Baker, Leavenworth, served from March, 1895, until March, 

1901. 
Joseph R. Burton, Abilene, served from March, 1901, until June I, 

1906. Resigned. 
Alfred W. Benson. Ottawa, appointed June 9. 1900. Served until 

January 22, 1907. 
Charles Curtis, Topeka, elected January 2."., 1807. Served until 

March, 1913. 
William H. Thompson, Garden City, elected January 27. 1918. Term 

expires March, 1919. 

THE TOMEKOY SUCCESSION. 

Samuel C. Pomeroy, Atchison, served from April •}, 1861, (date of 

election), until March, is?. - !. 
John J. Ingalls, Atchison, elected January 20, 1873; elected to two 

additional terms; served from March, 1 V 7."., until March. 1801. 
William A. Peffer, Topeka, served from March, 1801, until March, 

1897. 

449 



450 APPENDIX B 

William A. Harris, Linwood, served from March, 1897, until March, 

1903. 
Chester I. Long, Medicine Lodge, served from March, 1903, until 

March, 1909. 
Joseph L. Bristow, Salina, served from March, 1909. Term expires 

March, 1915. 

MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
1S61. Martin F. Conway, Lawrence ; served one term. 
1SG3. Abel Carter Wilder, Leavenworth ; served one term. 
1865. Sidney Clarke, Lawrence ; served until 1871. 
1S71. David P. Lowe, Fort Scott. 
1873. At Large.— David P. Lowe, Fort Scott. 
William A. Phillips, Salina. 
Stephen A. Cobb, Wyandotte. 
1875. Dist. 1, William A. Phillips, Salina. 
" 2, John R. Goodin, Humboldt. 
" 3, William R. Brown, Hutchinson. 
1877. " 1, William A. Phillips, Salina. 
" 2, Dudley C. Haskell, Lawrence. 
3, Thomas Ryan, Topeka. 
1879. " 1, John A. Anderson, Manhattan. 
" 2, Dudley C. Haskell, Lawrence. 
3, Thomas Ryan, Topeka. 
1881. " 1, John A. Anderson, Manhattan. 
" 2, Dudley C. Haskell, Lawrence. 
3, Thomas Ryan, Topeka. 
1883. " 1, John A. Anderson, Manhattan. 

" 2, Dudley C. Haskell, Lawrence. (Died Dec. 16, 1883.) 
" 3, Thomas Ryan, Topeka. 
At Large. — Samuel R. Peters, Newton. 

Edmund N. Morrill, Hiawatha. 
" " Lewis Hanback, Osborne. 

" " Bishop W. Perkins, Oswego. 

1883. Special election — 2d. Dist, to fill vacancy — 

E. H. Funston, Carlisle. 
1885. Dist. 1, E. N. Morrill, Hiawatha. 
" 2, E. II. Funston, Carlisle. 

3, Bishop W. Perkins, Oswego. 

4, Thomas Ryan, Topeka. 

" 5, John A. Anderson, Manhattan. 

" 6, Lewis Hanback, Osborne. 

" 7, Samuel R. Peters, Newton. 

1887. " 1, E. N. Morrill, Hiawatha. 

" 2, E. II. Funston, Carlisle. 

" 3, Bishop W. Perkins, Oswego. 

4, Thomas Ryan, Topeka. 

" 5, John A. Anderson, Manhattan. 

" 6, Erastus J. Turner, Iloxie. 



ArrExnix i: 



451 



18S7, Dist. 7, Samuel R, Peters, Newton, 

1SS9. " 1, E. N. Morrill, Hiawatha. 

2, E. H. Funston, Carlisle. 

3, Bishop w. Perkins, Oswego. 

" 4, Harrison Keiley, Burlington. 
" 5, John A. Anderson, Manhattan. 

" G, E. J. Turner, Boxte. 

7, Samuel E. Peters, Newtoa 

1S91. " 1, Case Broderick, Ilolton. 
" 2, E. H. Funston, Carlisle. 
" 3, B. II. Clover, Cambridge. 
" 4, John G. Otis, Topeka, 
" 5, John Davis, Junction City. 

G, William Baker, Lincoln. 
" 7, Jerry Simpson, Medicine Lodge. 

1593. " 1, Case Broderick, Holton. 

" 2, E. II. Funston, Carlisle. (Scat successfully contested 

by Horace L. Moore, Lawrence.) 
" 3, Thomas J. Hudson, Fredonia. 
" 4, Charles Curtis, Topeka. 
" 5, John Davis, Junction City. 
" G, William Baker, Lincoln. 
" 7. Jerry Simpson, Medicine Lodge. 
At Large. — William A. Harris, Linwood. 

1594. Dist. 2, Horace L. Moore, Lawrence ; took seat August 2, 1894. 
1895. " 1, Case Broderick, Holton. 

" 2, Orrin L. Miller, Kansas City. 
" 3, Snyder S. Kirkpatrick, Fredonia, 
" 4, Charles Curtis, Topeka. 
" 5, William A. Calderhca.l. Marysville. 
" G, William Baker, Lincoln. 
" 7, Chester I. Long, Medicine Lodge. 
At Large. — Richard W. Blue. Fleasanton. 
1897. Dist. 1, Case Broderick. Ilolton. 

2, Mason S. Peters, Kansas City. 

3, Edward E. Ridgely, I'ittshurg. 

4, Charles Curtis, Topeka. 

5, William I>. Vincent, Clay Center. 
G, N. B. McCormick, Phillipshurg. 
7, Jerry Simpson, Medicine Lodge. 

At Large. — Jeremiah D. Botkin, W infield. 
1899. Dist 1, Charles Curtis, Topeka. 

" 2, Justin D. Bowersock. Lawrence. 
" 3, Edwin R. Ridgely. I'ittshurg. 
" 4, James M. Miller. Council Grove. 
William A. Calderhead. Marysville. 
William A. Reeder. Logaa 
Chester I. Long, Medicine Lodge. 



5, 
G, 



At Large. — Willis J. Bailey, Baileyville. 



452 APPENDIX B 

1901. Dist. 1, Charles Curtis. Topeka. 

" 2, Justin D. Bowersock, Lawrence. 
" 3, Alfred M. Jackson, Wiuheld. 
" 4, James M. Miller, Council Grove. 
" 5, William A. Calderhead, Marysville. 
" 6, William A. Reeder, Logan. 
" 7, Chester I. Long, Medicine Lodge. 
At Large. — Charles F. Scott, Iola, 

1903. Dist. 1, Charles Curtis, Topeka. 

2, Justin D. Bowersock, Lawrence. 

3, Philip P. Campbell, Pittsburg. 

4, James M. Miller, Council Grove. 

5, William A. Calderhead, Marysville. 
G, William A. Reeder, Logan. 
7, Chester I. Long, Medicine Lodge. 

At Large. — Charles F. Scott, Iola. 

1905. Dist. 1, Charles Curtis, Topeka. 

2, Justin D. Bowersock, Lawrence. 

3, Philip P. Campbell, Pittsburg. 

4, James M. Miller, Council Grove. 

5, William A. Calderhead, Marysville. 

6, William A. Reeder, Logan. 

7, Victor Murdock, Wichita. 
At Large. — Charles F. Scott, Iola. 

1907. Dist. 1, Charles Curtis, Topeka. (Resigned January, 1907.) 

" 2, Charles F. Scott, Iola. 

" 3. Philip P. Campbell, Pittsburg. 

" 4, James M. Miller, Council Grove. 

" 5, William A. Calderhead, Marysville. 

" 0, William A. Reeder, Logan. 

" 7, Edmond II. Madison, Dodge City. 

" 8, Victor Murdock, Wichita. 

1907. " 1, Daniel R. Anthony, Jr., Leavenworth, elected special 
election, May 23, 1907. 

1909. " 1, Daniel R. Anthony, Jr., Leavenworth. 
*' 2, Charles F. Scott, Iola. 
" 3, Philip P. Campbell, Pittsburg. 
" 4, James M. Miller, Council Grove. 
" 5, William A. Calderhead, Marysville. 
" 6, William A. Reeder, Logan. 

7, Edmond II. Madison, Dodge City. 

8, Victor Murdock, Wichita. 

1911. " 1, Daniel R. Anthony, Jr., Leavenworth. 

" 2, Alex. C. Mitchell, Lawrence. (Died July 7, 1911.) 

" 3. Philip P. Campbell, Pittsburg. 

" 4, Fred S. Jackson, Eureka. 

" 5, Rollin R. Roes, Minneapolis. 

" G, I. D. Young, Beloit. 






APPENDIX B 153 

1911, Dist. 7, Bdmond EL Madison, Dodse City. (Died August L8, 
1911.) 
" 8, Victor Murdock, Wichita. 

1012. " 7, George A. Neeley, Hutchinson; elected at ■pedal elec- 
tion, Jan. 11, 1912. 

1913. " 1, D. R. Anthony, jr.. Leavenworth. 

" 2, Joseph Taggart, Kansas City. 

3, Philip P. Campbell, Pittsburg. 

4, Dudley Doolittle, Cottonwood Falls. 
" 5, G. T. Helverlng, Marysville. 

0, John R,. Connolley. Oberlln. 
" 7, (!oorp:e A. Neeley, Hutchinson, 

" 8, Victor Murdock, 'Wichita. 






INDEX 



INDEX 



Abbott, J. B., sent to Southeast- Army of the Border, Blunt in 



era Kansas, 84. 

Agriculture, Department of, chap- 
ter on, 306 ct seq.; Plumb 
greatest factor in establish- 
ment of, 307. 

Alabama, State of, comparison by 
Plumb of assessed valuation 
of various kinds of personal 
property in, 298. 

Aldricb, Nelson W., elected to 
Senate, 249. 

Allen, Lyman, one of the found- 
ers of Emporia, GO. 

Alliance, forerunner of Populist 
party, 344; successful in 
Kansas in 1890, 420. 

Allison, W. B., sworn as Senator 
with riuinb. 233; tribute of 
to Plumb, 327; 343. 

Anderson, Bill, bloody guerilla, 
138 ; left Council Grove on 
stolen horse ; arrested by 
Quantrill, 145 ; sisters of ar- 
rested and imprisoned. 146; 
raid of into Wyandotte 
County, 153. 

Anderson, John A., 450, 451. 

Anderson, Josephine, killed in 
falling prison, 149. 

Anderson, Major Martin, re- 
ported impeachment of State 
officers, 91 ; saw dispatches 
from Plumb to Ewing, 160; 
in command at Platte Bridge, 
200; on the march up the 
riatte, 205 ; surprised Sena- 
tor Plumb, 207. 

Anderson Sisters, among the 
imprisoned women, 146. 

Anderson, Major Thomas J., 
story about Plumb, 207. 

"Andover Band," who composed, 
70. 

Anthony, D. R. Jr., 452, 453. 



command of; brigade! of, 

184. 

Arthur, Chester A.. Plumb fa- 
vored for President, -~~>. 

Aubry, Border station, 1 i:;. 



trip of with 



457 



Bailey, Dr. — 

Plumb, 88. 
Bailey, Judge L. D„ suit of 

clothes of, long worn ; sent 

home witii girl farthest out. 

69; nominated for Bupreme 

Court. 9<>: signed order, '.'•;; 

mentioned. ;is. 
Bailey. W. J.. l.M. 
Baker, F. P., 95. 
Baker, Lucieu, elected to Senate, 

l I'.i. 
Baker, William. 461. 
Barber, Thomas, saw Plumb's 

horse shot at Cane Hill, n:: ; 

saw dispatches from Plumb 
urging Swing to form on 

State line. 160 : statement of 
about the march up the 

Platte and the CTOSSing at 

Julesburg, 205. 

P.arnesville, Border statinn. 1 |:>. 

Bayard, Thomas I\, sworn as 
Senator with Plumb, •_'"■"• 

P.eets, James, Quantrill'a guide, 
163. 

Benson, A. w.. appointed to Ben- 
ate, 419. 

Benton, Thomas II., pioneer lit'' 1 
gave strength to, 72. 

Berry, James II., statement of, 
106; facetious motion of, 
414. 

Beuter, Captain Nicholas, 164 

Bierce, Hannah Maria, some ac- 
count of family of; married 
David Plumb, 5. 



458 



INDEX 



Bieree, Lucius V., pioneer in 
Ohio, 5. 

Bieree, Winslow, pioneer in New 
York and Ohio, 5. 

Big Blue, battle of, 187 et seq. 

Bigger, L. A., statement of 
Plumb's aid in saving inno- 
cent men from death, 402 ; 
sent widow and eight chil- 
dren to Washington for 
Plumb to find employment 
for, 41 G. 

Black, William C, 162. 

Blaine, James G., sworn as Sen- 
ator with Plumb, 233; chap- 
ter on, 274 et seq.; misstates 
intent of resolution, 342 ; 
majority in Kansas, 344. 

Blair, Colonel C. W., 170. 

Blair, Henry W., story of Plumb 
told by, 415. 

Bland, Richard P., led in fight 
to restore silver, 341 et 
seq. 

"Bleeding Kansas," chapter on, 
35 et seq. 

Blue, R. W., 451. 

Blunt, General J. G., with Plumb 
in pursuit of guerillas, 91 ; 
ordered Plumb mustered, 
104; ordered 11th Kansas to 
join him, 107 ; camped on 
Lindsay's Prairie; informed 
of Hindman's movements, 
112; orders General Hex-ron 
to join him, 119: how his 
army reached Prairie Grove, 
122 ; movements of, 123 ; part 
of in battle of Prairie Grove, 
124; plans attack on Van 
Buren, 130 ; the battle, 131 ; 
succeeded by Schofield, 133 ; 
in command of the District 
of the Frontier, 143; com- 
mander of the Army of the 
Border; letter of Plumb to, 
183; at Lexington, 184; on 
Little Blue; wished to fight 
decisive battle there, 185; 
reinforcements at Little 
Blue, 186; sent Lane to In- 
dependence to see Curtis, 
187; to have superseded 
Curtis, 190; would not order 
a retreat, 191. 



"Bogus Legislature," mentioned, 

35, 30. 
Boies, Samuel, escaped from 
Quantrill, 159 ; statement of, 
103. 
Bonebrake, P. I., on Plumb's 
manner, 389; statement of, 
395 390. 
Bookout, Wright, killed by Bill 

Anderson, 153. 
Borton, L. W., speech of in vot- 
ing for Plumb, 203. 
Botkin, J. D., 451. 
Bowen, Dr. Jesse, agent at Iowa 
City for National Kansas 
Committee, 43 ; outfitted 
Plumb's company, 44 ; Tap- 
pan's statement of, 48. 
Bowersock, J. D., 451, 452. 
Brewer, David J., appointed Jus- 
tice of the Supreme Court 
through Plumb, 420. 
Bristow, Senator Joseph L., 
statement of as to Plumb, 
415 ; elected to Senate, 450. 
Broderick, Case, 451. 
Brogan, F. A., statement of, 205 ; 
Plumb aided in speech, 408. 
Brown, General E. B., malice of 
toward Kansas; in command 
of District of the Border, 
171. 
Brown, G. W., employed Plumb 
as foi'eman for Herald of 
Freedom office, 55 ; a founder 
of Emporia ; sells Plumb an 
interest, 00. 
Brown, John, slew Ruffians on 
the Pottawatomie, 37; hur- 
ried into Kansas, 39 ; in 
Lawrence in September, 
1850, 43; son of with Rod- 
path, 47; James H. Holmes 
one of the men of, 05. 
Brown, W. R., 450. 
Brown's Mill, 110. 
Buchanan, James, subterfuge of 
on homestead question, 357. 
Buck & Ball, chapter on, 120 et 

seq. 
Buford's Men, on steamboat, 25; 
at Leavenworth, 30; when 
they came to Kansas; 'ac- 
tions of. 30; reinforced by 
Missourians, 37. 



i\i)i;x 



159 



Butler, Pardee, 224. 
Burton, J. It., elected to Senate, 
440. 

Calderhead, W. A., 451, 462. 

Caldwell, Alexander, resigned as 
Senator, 226; elected to Sen- 
ate, 449. 

Cameron, J. Don, sought influ- 
ence of Plumb for Grant, 
246; went to Plumb's cham- 
ber, 432. 

Campbell, A. W., for Garfield, 
246. 

Campbell, P. P., 452, 453. 

Campaign, Plumb's last, 420 et 
seq. 

Cane Hill, chapter on, 112 et seq. 

Carlisle, John G., elected Speak- 
er, 265 ; re-elected Speaker, 
278. 

Carney, Governor Thomas, op- 
posed steps of Curtis to de- 
fend Kansas in Price raid, 
1S1 et seq.; prepared procla- 
mation to disband militia the 
day of battle, 185. 

Carpenter, Colonel John C, state- 
ment of, 216 ; said Kansas 
knew what she was about in 
electing Plumb, 236; tells 
how Plumb worked, 384. 

Carpenter, Lewis, Reporter Su- 
preme Court, 96. 

Carroll, Ed, favored Plumb for 
Senate, 313. 

Case, N. P., 95. 

Case, Theodore S., letter of 
Plumb to, 174. 

Cass, Lewis, 16. 

Cassell, Joseph, sold Plumb print- 
ing office, 14. 

Cassidy, J. B., 246. 

"Catfish Aristocracy," referred 
to, 137. 

Charity, that of Plumb, chapter 
on, 399 et seq. 

Chase, Harold T., interviewed in 
last campaign, 424. 

Chase, Bishop Philander, founded 
Kenyon College. 11. 

Chase, Salmon P., 13. 

Chief of Staff, chapter on 
Plumb's position of, 133 et 
seq. 



Civil Service, chapter on, 267 - 1 
teq. ; Plumb's plan i"r, iwu ; 
extended bj Cleveland, 2U3. 

Clark. Lt-GoL C. B., In command 
at Coldwater < liw >■. l i.'i ; 
criticised by Swing, 106. 

Clarke, G. w., arrested for mur- 
der, r»7 ; Border Roman ; 
Leader In Kansas trou 
83. 

Clarke. Sidney. 450L 

clay, Henry. 16; pioneer life 
gave strength to, Tu. 

Cleveland, Grover, elected Presi- 
dent; contest of with the 
Senate. 278; made radical 
changes In administration of 
land laws, 864; arraignment 
of by Plumb, .".•"."> i / >• q. 

Cloud, Colonel William F., en- 
listment of, 98. 

Clover, B. II., 461 

Cobb, N., 96. 

Cobb, S. A.. 460. 

Coke, Richard, on select Com- 
mittee on meat products, 

Coldwater Grove, Border station, 

1 13. 
Coleman, Captain Charles P., In 
command at Little Bantu I 
14.'> : prompt action of, 165; 
sent couriers to Kansas City : 
took trail of guerillas, 158; 
charged QuantrilTs gueril- 
las : battle at Fletcher Farm, 
162. 
Columbia, post-office at, 66 
Commission, Customs, amend- 
ment to Mills Bill providing 

for. Introduced by Plumb, 

3i;x : what Senator Dolliver 
said. 872, 373. 

Commission, Tariff, first bills fa- 
voring; amendment t'> Mills 
Bill providing for Introdi 
by Plumb, 868 : what Sena- 
tor Dolliver said of, 872, 
373. 

Congressional Library Building. 
801 et » '/• 

Conkling, Roscoe, sought Influ- 
ence of Plumb for Grant, 
246 : against silver, 842. 

Coniu'lley, John K., i 



4G0 



INDEX 



Conservation, first made a prin- 
ciple of American policy by 
Plumb, 301 et seq. 

Conway, M. F., Adjutant Gen- 
eral, 75, 450. 

Cooper, General D. H., defeated 
at Old Fort Wayne, 109. 

Cordley, Rev. Richard, pioneer 
preacher in Kansas ; one of 
the "Andover Band," 70; on 
Plumb's capacity, 396 ; tells 
of Plumb's helpfulness, 405 ; 
delivered funeral sermon of 
Senator Plumb, 435. 

Cove Creek, Marmaduke re- 
treated down, 113 ; opera- 
tions on, 116 ; awful march 
of 11th Kansas down, 130. 

Cowgill, E. B., report of on sor- 
ghum sugar, 378. 

Cracklin, Joseph, assembled Free- 
State men, 39. 

Crane, William H., represented 
Plumb in play of "The Sen- 
ator," 334. 

Crawford, Colonel Samuel J., as 
Captain captured guns at 
Old Fort Wayne, 109; op- 
posed Hindman's advance up 
Cove Creek, 116 ; with Plumb 
fought battle of Reed's 
Mountain, 117, 118 ; work of 
referred to and quoted from, 
182 ; commissioned Plumb 
Colonel, 199 ; supported Gree- 
ley, 224. 

Crawford, William, daughters of 
imprisoned, 146. 

Crenshaw, A. L. H., affair of, 169 
ct seq. 

Cross Hollows, big chain found 
at, 133. 

Crozier, Robert, 226; appointed 
to Senate, 449. 

Cullum, S. M., on select Commit- 
tee on meat products, 300; 
statement of, 390. 

Curtis, , one of Plumb's 

company, 44 ; sent to explore 
valley of the Blue, 51. 

Curtis, Charles, elected to Sen- 
ate, 449 ; 451 ; 452. 

Curtis, O. A., joined Plumb's 
company, 44 ; speeches of, 40. 



Curtis, General Samuel R., in 
command of Department of 
Kansas, 180 ; preparations of 
for Price raid; places Kan- 
sas under martial law, 181 ; 
opposed by Governor Car- 
ney and others, 182 ; because 
of Kansas politicians could 
not fight decisive battle at 
Little Blue, 186; decided to 
abandon Kansas City ; sent 
trains to Wyandotte, 189; 
council of war decided to 
arrest, and place Blunt in 
place of, 190 ; wanted to or- 
der a retreat with troops 
under fire, 191 ; relieved of 
Carney, 192. 

Davis, David, 13. 

Davis, Henry Winter, 13. 

Davis, John, 451. 

Deal. Mrs. Eliza, statement of, 
149. 

Deep Harbor Convention, chap- 
ter on, 316, et seq. 

Deitzler, G. W., one of the 
founders of Emporia, 60. 

Democratic party, became a pro- 
slavery party, 17. 

Denver, James W., appointed 
Governor, 79. 

Dickinson, Ally, 177. 

Diplomatic Service, chapter on, 
289, et seq. 

District of the Border, chapter 
on, 136, et seq. 

Dolliver, Senator J. P., statement 
of as to Plumb's amendment 
to the Mills Bill, 372; what 
he said of Plumb, 373. 

Doolittle, Dudley, 453. 

Douglas, Stephen A., action of on 
public lands, 358. 

Dumble, J. W., foreman in Trib- 
une office, 13 ; partner in 
Xenia News, 14; letter of, 



Edmunds, George F., President 

of the Senate, 265. 
Edwards, Major John N., 180. 
Eldridge, William, one of 

Plumb's company, 44. 



INDEX 



Mi] 



Eleventh Kansas, organization 
of, chapter on, 107, it »eq.; 
at Cane Hill, 113; prairie 
Grove, 124; camped at Crane 
Creek; takes boat for Kan- 
sas City, 13-4; ordered 
mounted, 135 ; date of _order, 
142; held the crossing "of the 
Little Blue, 186 ; held a ford 
on the Big Blue ; drove back 
Jackman's brigade, 188 ; po- 
sition of on Sunday ; Simp- 
son got rations for, 191 ; in 
pursuit of Price ; return of 
to Paola, 192 ; assigned to 
duty on the Great Plains, 
193; march of to Fort 
Kearny, 194 ; march of to 
Fort Laramie, 195 ; disposi- 
tion of in Wyoming, 196; 
mustered out, 200 ; record of, 
202. 

Elkins, Philip D., saved Plumb's 
life, 34. 

Elkins, Stephen B., statement of 
mentioned, 34 ; on Order No. 
11, 166 ; statement of, 392. 

Ellis, Ben, 164. 

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, pleased 
with Lane's speech, 46. 

Emery, James S., delegate, 81. 

Emporia, founding of ; location 
of, 60 ; chapter on, 63, et 
scq.; mail for sent to Law- 
rence ; later, left in hollow 
tree at Holmes' Ford, •'>'!; 
ague at, 70 ; early church 
services at, 71 ; Emporia and 
the Civil War, chapter on, 
98, et scq. ; heroism of peo- 
ple of, 98 to 106. 

Emporia Artillery, enlistment of, 
98. 

Emporia Cavalry, enlistment of, 
98. 

Emporia Guards, enlistment of, 
98. 

Emporia Town Company, chap- 
ter on, 59, et scq. 

Evarts, William M., 417. 

Ewing, General Thomas, Jr., del- 
egate to Leavenworth Con- 
stitutional Convention, 80 ; 
nominated for Chief Justice, 
90 ; when resigned, 96 ; ap- 



polnted to raiM troops, li 
Colonel of the llth Kani 
107 ; error <»f in taking Held, 
108; at battle of Cane mil. 
n:: ; paii <>f iii battle <>r 
Prairie Qrove, 124 ; adi I 

that Plumb could bolld f-rrv 

over wiiii.' River, 188; made 
Brigadier-General : comman- 
der (if District of the Kor 
der, 134 ; size of I ttstrld : 

difflcnltlea encountered, 186, 
'/ scq.; report! condltiona 

in his District, ill; ad- 
dressed citizens of (Hut lie; 

forces <if, 142; plans of tor 

guarding the Border; Bta 

tious on the Border, 1 I.". ; 

Captain Pike's actions re- 
viewed by, 155; absent night 
of Quantrill raid; criticised, 
158; official report of quoted 
from; Plumb nrged to form 
on State-line, 160; joins pur- 
suit of Quantrill. 160; Ifr 
sues < trder No. 1 1 : had Van 
Horn succ 1 Plumb as Pro- 
vost Marshal, 168; action of 

in Crenshaw affair, 170; 

fought Price at Pilot Knob. 
Mo., 180. 



Fairehild, Father, pioneer Meth- 
odist minister, 09; add] 
of. 105. 

Fairfield, Stephen II., testimony 
of to Plumb's devotion to 
duty, 206. 

Fawcett, Mrs. . sacrifices of. 

101. 

Fiftieth Congress, chapter on, 
293, ct aeq. 

Fifty-first Congress, chapter on, 
319. ct .s"/- 

Flshback, w. H. ML, 182. 

Flenniken, B. F., letter Of Rev. 
J. D. Liggett to. 18; fieri; 

of Senate Commltl D 

Public Lands, 428; private 
secretary to Senator Plumb 
many years ; Plumb's last 
writing addressed to : pres- 
ent in Plumb's last 1 1 1 1 - - 
saw him pass away, 430 ; 



462 



INDEX 



notified Senator PefCer of 

Plumb's death, 432. 
"Float," Wyandot Indian, nature 

of; Emporia townsite cov- 
ered with one, 63. 
Force Bill, pressed by radical 

element, 319 ; killed, 323. 
Ford, Colonel J. H„ in command 

of Fort Riley, 193. 
Fort Halleck, Plumb stationed 

at, 199. 
Fort Saunders, captured by 

Lane, 40. 
Fort Titus, capture of, 40. 
Forty-sixth Congress, chapter on, 

237, et seq. 
Forty-seventh Congress, chapter 

on, 248, et seq. 
Forty-eighth Congress, chapter 

on, 265, et seq. 
Forty-ninth Congress, chapter on, 

278, et seq. 
Franklin, town of, captured, 40. 
Frease, Cyrus, saved from death 

by Plumb, 403. 
Fremont, John C, honored flag 

of Emporia troops, 100; 

bought antiquated muskets, 

107. 
Free-State movement, see chap- 
ter on "Bleeding Kansas," 

35, et seq. 
Fugitive Slave Law, killed Whig 

party, 17. 
Funston, E. H., story of, 413; 

433 ; 450 ; 451. 



Gallagher, William Davis, a 
poet, 18. 

Gardner, Captain John, picket 
station of, 116; relieved by 
Crawford, 117. 

Garfield, James A., nomination 
of, chapter on, 245, et seq.; 
talks with Plumb; Simpson 
and Plumb at room of, 246 ; 
nominated, 247; cabinet of 
confirmed, 248; death of, 
249. 

Geary, John W., appointed Gov- 
ernor of Kansas, 41 ; vetoed 
bill for Lecompton Constitu- 
tion ; veto overridden, 73; 
fled to save his life, 74. 



Gilpatrick, Dr., sent to South- 
eastern Kansas, 84. 

Glick, G. W., elected Governor, 
261 ; convened Legislature, 
270. 

Gold Standard, not a Republican 
tenet until 1896, 347. 

Good, S. S., editor at Leaven- 
worth, 31. 

Goodin, J. R.., 450. 

Goss, Captain B. F., in command 
at Trading Post, 143. 

Greeley, Horace, at Osawatomie 
Convention, 89 ; supported by 
Kansans, 224. 

Green, Captain L. F., statement 
of, 170; driven in by Price, 
184. 

Gregg, Captain William H., ac- 
tions of at Lawrence, 156 ; 
speaks of Brooklyn as Black- 
jack Point, 161 ; given com- 
mand of rear-guard, 162 ; 
held prisoners in check, 163. 

"Grizzlies, The," Plumb's com- 
pany so called, 44. 

Graham, J. M., 104. 

Grandstaff, Mollie, one of impris- 
oned women, 146. 

Grant, U. S., Plumb opposed ap- 
propriation for monument to, 
280. 

Grasshopper Falls, convention at, 
75. 

Graves, Judge Charles B.. state- 
ment of, 213 ; tells of Plumb's 
helpfulness, 405. 

Gray, Mrs. Lou Monday, one of 
the imprisoned women, 146. 

Hackney, William P., urged 
Plumb for Senator, 225., 

Hall, Miss , one of the im- 
prisoned women, 146. 

Hallowell, J. R., 224. 

Ilalstead, Murat, rejected by 
Senate as Minister to Ger- 
many, 173. 

Hamill, James, went to Kansas 
with Plumb, 55. 

Hamilton, Alexander, 16. 

Hamilton, C. S., editor Marys- 
ville (O.) Tribune, 13; aided 
Plumb on Xcnia News, 14. 



INDEX 



it;:: 



Hammond, John, arrival of, in 
Kansas, 5!). 

Hammond, Dr. William A., fight 
of Plumb against, 235. 

Hanback, Lewis, 4r.i>. 

Harper, Robert J., 204. 

Harris, E. P., the printer who 
saw Plumb in the bookstore, 
55; statement of, 388. 

Harris, W. A., elected to Senate, 
450, 451. 

Harrison, Benjamin, in Garfield's 
room at Chicago, 24t> ; chap- 
ter on, 309; Plumb aided in 
nomination and election of, 
310; Plumb for nomination 
of, 420. 

Harrison, J. N., called "Curley" 
Harrison ; how he met 
Plumb ; how Plumb remem- 
bered name of, 412; jvith 
Plumb in last campaign; 
how they crossed the Kansas 
River, 423; meeting at Ed- 
wardsville, 424. 

Haskell, Dudley C, Plumb's 
speech on death of, 209 ; 450. 

Harvey, James M., elected Sen- 
ator, 226; stood for re-elec- 
tion, 228; elected to Senate, 
449. 

Hayes, R. B., 13; called special 
session of Congress, 237: ve- 
toed funding bill, 251 ; vetoed 
silver bill, 344. 

Helvering, G. T., 453. 

Hendricks, Thomas A., death of, 
278; favored railroad land 
grants, 358. 

Heritage, Captain L. T., state- 
ment of, 87; elected Captain 
of Company C, 11th Kansas, 
107. 

Herron, General F. J., marches 
to join Blunt, 119; attacked 
by Hindman, 120 ; plans bat- 
tle with Hindman, 121 ; ac- 
count of battle, 122; with 
Blunt plans attack on Van 
Buren, 130. 

Higgins, William, statement of, 
80; tells why Plumb sup- 
ported Greeley, 224. 

Higginson, Thomas W.. heard 
Lane's speech at Nebraska 



City, 16; Tappan'i ttatement 
concerning, 49. 
iiniyur, George s., impeai I 

91. 

Hindman, ( leneral Th u < '.. in 

command < ionfederate tn 
in Arkansas, 1 12 ; army ol ; 
movements of, l \'< ; checked 
on Reed's Mountain, 118; 
changed plans ami moved >>n 
Herron ; met him at Prairie 
Grove : plana <>f battle, 120 ; 
battle, 123, 124; defeat ..r, 
125 ; defeated at Van Bnren ; 
retreat of, 182. 

Hinton, Colonel Richard J.. 
writes aeeount of Illinois 
company, 29; was to have 

had a share in Emporia, 
00 ; wrote / >»/" ochment 
Coses, !».". ; saved from death 
by Plumb. 404. 

Hogeboom. Dr. <;. W. Burgeon 
of 11th Kansas. 107. 

Hogue, John T.. boughl Plumb's 
interest in .V' nia \> K7S, 55. 

Holhtday. Ben, lines of opened 
by Plumb, 199; Plumb op- 
posed claims <>r. - j i_\ 

Ilolman, William S.. 861 : on 
Committee of Conference, 
439. 

Holmes, James II., hauled 
Plumb's press from oiii Wy- 
andotte t<» Emporia, 66. 

nolmes' Ford, hollow tree at. 

used for Emporia mail, 66. 
Holt. Colonel John P., with 

Quantriil on Lawrence raid, 

154. 
Homestead Act, Republican 

measure : benefits i 
Hood, Major Calvin, with Plumb 
in business, 221. 

Hooper. Samuel 1 ».. 840. 
llornsby. Columbus, one <<t the 

founders of Emporia, 80. 
Howells. William Dean, I 

near Xeiiia. O., 19. 
llovt. Major Davis S., murdered, 

•10. 
Hudson. Major J. K . Plumb 

aided paper ol". 886 : story of 

about Plumb, 415. 



4C4 



INDEX 



Hudson, T. J., 451. 

Hunter, John, went to Kansas 
with Plumb, 55 ; went to 
Mariposa with Pierce, 57. 

Hunter, Robert, went to Kansas 
with Plumb, 55. 



Illinois Company, arrival of, at 
Leavenworth ; turned back 
by Border-Ruffians, 28. 

Ingalls, John J., article of re- 
ferred to, 137; candidate for 
President, 309; elected to 
Senate, 440. 

Influence of Plumb in the Sen- 
ate, chapter on, 417, et seq. 

Inspiration for Drama, chapter 
on, 334, et seq. 



Jackson, A. M., 452. 

Jackson, Fred S., 452. 

Jay, William, 230. 

"Jayhawker," nature and origin 
of the term, 153. 

Jefferson, Thomas, pioneer life 
gave strength to, 72. 

Jennison, Colonel Charles R-, 
driven from Byram's Ford, 
187 ; some account of, 188. 

Jewell, Colonel L. R., mortally 
wounded at battle of Cane 
Hill, 114. 

Johns, , one of Plumb's com- 
pany, 44 ; sent to explore the 
valley of the Blue, 51. 

Johnson, H. P., delegate to Leav- 
enworth Constitutional Con- 
vention, 81 ; prominent in 
early Kansas ; Colonel of 
Fifth Kansas ; killed at Mor- 
ristown, 28. 

Johnston, Judge W. A., statement 
of, 213; tells how Plumb 
worked, 305 ; tells how 
Plumb traveled in last cam- 
paign, 424. 

Jones Mission, established among 
the Cberokces, 126; orig- 
inated name of Pin Indians, 
127. 

Jones, Sheriff, Plumb talked to, 
31. 

Junkin, William W., 1G1. 



Kansas, political conditions in, 
as seen by Plumb, 31, 32, 33 ; 
characteristics of people of, 
411 ; State proverb of ; lan- 
guage of invented by Plumb, 
412. 

Keiley, , refused as Minister 

by Austria, 289. 

Keiley, Harrison, 451. 

Keiley, William D., 340. 

Kenyon College, founding of, 11. 

Kerr, Charity, one of imprisoned 
women, 146. 

Kidd's Mills, 113. 

King, Captain Henry ; comment 
of on Plumb's re-election to 
the Senate, 264 ; statement 
of as to Plumb's love for 
newspapers and newspaper 
men, 384. 

King, William R., action of as 
Commissioner, 358. 

Kinney, Coates, a poet, 18. 

Kirkpatrick, S. S., 451. 

Kitts, Jobn H., furnished motto 
for Buck & Ball, 126. 

Lane, James H., foremost leader 
in Kansas, 37 ; led in 
"Lane's Army of the North" ; 
political policy of almost 
elected Fremont, 38 ; cam- 
paign of in Kansas against 
the Border-Ruffians in 1856, 
30, et seq.; speech of at Ne- 
braska City, 46 ; assured 
Plumb that he could get into 
Kansas, 40 ; appointed to or- 
ganize the people ; appointed 
Plumb to superintend enroll- 
ment, 74 ; President Leaven- 
worth Constitutional Con- 
vention ; speech of, 80 ; 
Major-General of Free-State 
forces in troubles in South- 
eastern Kansas ; appointed 
riumb his aide-de-camp, 84 ; 
report of on operation in 
campaign, 85 ; orders Plumb 
mustered as Lieutenant, 104 ; 
pursued Quantrill, 150 ; 
drove Quantrill out of Brook- 
lyn, K>(); wanted command 
of Plumb's troops, 161 ; in 
battle at Fletcher Farm, 



INDEX 



105 



162 ; appointed on staff of 
General Curtis; activity <if 
in Price raid, 181; at the 
battle of Little Blue. 186; 
sent to Independence by 
Blunt, 1S7 ; supported Lin- 
coln, 18S ; election of to Sen- 
ate ; Senatorial succession of, 
449. 

Lane Trail, account of, 39. 

Larimer, William, 224. 

Lawrence Massacre, chapter on, 
151, et seq. 

Leavenworth Constitution, chap- 
ter on, 78. 

Lecompton Constitution, chapter 
on, 73, et seq. 

Lecompton Legislature, drunken- 
ness and immorality of, 57. 

Leland, Cyrus, Jr., in pursuit of 
Quantrill, 159 ; statement of, 
161 ; commanded citizens in 
pursuit of Quantrill, 162 ; re- 
port of referred to, 163 ; 
nomination of Logan for 
Vice-President, 276. 

Lenhart, Charles, 84. 

Lewis, L. W., 218. 

Lewis, T. H., 218. 

Liggett, Rev. J. D., wrote arti- 
cles for Xenia News, 19 ; 
statement of, 20; partner of 
Plumb, 25. 

Lincoln, Abraham, pioneer life 
gave strength to, 72. 

Lindsav's Prairie, Blunt camped 
on, 112. 

Little Blue, battle of, ISO. et 
seq. 

Little Osage, 110. 

Little Santa Fe, a Border sta- 
tion, 143. 

Lloyd, David D., wrote "The Sen- 
ator" for Crane, 334. 

Logan, , sentenced to ten 

years in penitentiary for ac- 
tion in Crenshaw affair, 170. 

Logan, General John A., nomi- 
nated for Vice-President, 276. 

Logan, J. W., statement of, 179. 

Long, Chester I., elected to Sen- 
ate, 450 ; 451 ; 452. 

Lowe, Colonel , Plumb 

studied law in office of, 22. 



Lowe, David p.. stood for Ben- 
atop againsl Plumb, 228 ; de- 
feated, 229, 1 

i. owe. Colonel Bandy, punned 
Quantrill ; number <>f guer- 
illas killed by, 161 : pre- 
vented from aiding Colonel 
Veale, 190. 

Lynde, Edward, si. 

Lyon, General Nathaniel, strat- 
egy of, 109. 

Mac Lennan, F. P.. statement "f, 

87. 

McBratney, Robert, Plumb op- 
posed to polil Ically, --. 

McClung, B. w. Leigh, went to 
Kansas with Plumb, 42; one 
of Plumb's company, 1 1 : 
night with Bhingwasi 
band ; offered Chiefs daugh- 
ter for wife, ">7 ; nursed 
Plumb througb smallpox; 
short of clothes at Emporia, 
68; office of at Emporia, 86 . 
mentioned, 98. 

McCormlck, X. B., 45L 

McCorkle, Mrs. Nannie Harris, 
one of Imprisoned women. 
146, 

McDonald. Joseph B., 239 

McGee, Prey P., kept public 
house at IIP < 'reck : 1 >avid 
Plumb stopped at house of, 
61. 

McKinlev Bill, passage of, 819; 
Plumb. Paddock and 'ivtti- 
grew opposed. 825; attempt 
of Plumb to amend by 
tablishment of Tariff Coin- 
mission. 374: unpopular in 
the West. 421. 

Madison. K. II.. 452; 458. 

Mahone, William. Plumb dined 
with night of last ill:. 
429. 

Maloy, John, statement of. 217. 

Manderson, C i\. on Beleci Com- 
mittee on meat products, 
300; Plumb elected him 
President of the Senate, 41S. 

Mariposa, founding of by Plumb, 

61, ft Bi '/. 

Marmaduke, Colonel J. t.. in 
command at Caue Hill, 112; 



466 



INDEX 



defeated by Blunt, 113; ad- 
vanced up Cove Creek, 116. 

Martin, John, elected to Senate, 
449. 

Martin, Colonel John A., secre- 
tary, 90; friendly to Plumb, 
231. 

Matthews, Stanley, resolution of 
to pay bonds in silver, 342. 

Meat trust, existence of described 
by Plumb, 299. 

Military Prison, Collapse of, 
chapter on, 145, ct scq. 

Mills Bill, the, action on, 293; 
occupied time of Senate, 304 ; 
Plumb engaged in debates 
on ; amendment to providing 
for Customs Commission in- 
troduced by Plumb, 3GS ; 
what Senator Dolliver said 
of, 372, 373. 

Miller, J. M., 451, 452. 

Miller, O. L., 451. 

Miller, W. A., 395. 

"Minneola Swindle," what it 
was, 79. 

Mitchell, General Robert B., del- 
egate to Leavenworth Con- 
stitutional Convention, 81 ; 
on the Great Plains, 193. 

Monroe, Colonel J. C, ordered to 
engage Union forces, 119. 

Montgomery, Colonel James, 
champion of Free-State men, 
83; in Price raid, 182. 

Moody, Granville, 19 ; addressed 
meeting, 24. 

Moody, Joel, 224. 

Moonlight, Colonel Thomas, 
elected Lt.-Col. 11th Kansas, 
107 ; order of, 110 ; at battle 
Prairie Grove, 124 ; made 
Colonel 11th Kansas, 134; 
headquarters of at raola, 
178; letter of to Plumb, 183; 
in command of the rear at 
Lexington, 184 ; charged up 
the hill, 185; good fight of 
at Little Blue, 1SG ; describes 
charge of Plumb ; checked 
advance of enemy, 188 ; 
wanted to push enemy, 191 ; 
assigned to District of Col- 
orado, 193; given command 



of Fort Laramie, 197; lost 
horses ; ordered mustered 
out, 198. 

Moore, , aided by Plumb, 204. 

Moore, H. L., 451. 

Morrill, E. N., 450, 451. 

Morrison Bill, the, defeated, 265. 

Morrison, William R., bill of de- 
feated, 265. 

Morrow, John, Price and Hind- 
man camped on farm of, 116. 

Morse, Rev. G. C, pioneer 
preacher at Emporia ; one 
of the "Andover Band" ; es- 
tablished the Congregational 
Church at Emporia, 70. 

Morse, Mrs. G. C, statement of, 
72. 

Morton, Oliver, P., sworn as Sen- 
ator with Plumb, 233. 

Munday, Martha, one of the im- 
prisoned women, 146. 

Munday, Sue, one of the impris- 
oned women, 146 ; now Mrs. 
Womack ; statement of, 149. 

Murdock, M. M., 225. 

Murdock, Victor, 452, 453. 

Neeley, G. A., 453. 

Newman, George W., 217. 

New Mexico, rights of people of 

championed by Plumb, 353. 
Newspapers, Plumb's interest in 

and connection with, chapter 

on, 3S1, ct scq. 

Oklahoma, Plumb favored open- 
ing, 285 ; President instructed 
to negotiate treaties for, 293 
no action by President, 294 
chapter on, 327, ct scq.; 
Plumb opposed Springer 
amendments ; favored admis- 
sion of, 332. 

Old Fort Wayne, battle of, 109. 

Oliver's Store, 116. 

Order No. 11, some account of; 
text of, 166. 

Osawatomie, pillaged by Whit- 
field, 37. 

Osborn, Thomas A., appointed 
Robert Crozier to Senate, 
226 ; stood for U. S. Senator, 
228. 



INDEX 



K 



H 



Otis, John G., 451. 

ruddock, A. S., voted against 
McKinley Bill, 325, 433. 

Palmer, Captain Ilenry E., state- 
ment of, 200. 

Parker, Colonel B. F., bloody 
guerilla, 141 ; killed, 1 12. 

Parker, Frank, had charge of im- 
prisoned women, 147: or- 
dered women out of prison, 
148. 

Parker, R. D., one of the "An- 
dover Band," 70. 

Parrott, Marcus J., spoke at 
Xenia, Ohio ; in favor of the 
Free-State men in Kansas, 
23. 

Payne, David L., Oklahoma 
boomer, 32S. 

Payne, Stephen J., murdered by 
Bill Anderson, 153. 

Payne, Thomas J., statement of, 
153. 

Payson, L. E., 439. 

Peck, George R., statement of, 
389. 

Peffer, W. A., tribute of to 
Plumb, 407 ; notified of 
Plumb's death, 432 ; elected 
to Senate, 449. 

Pellett, , one of Plumb's com- 
pany, 44. 

Penick, Colonel William R., good 
border commander, 139 ; 
regiment of mustered out, 
140. 

Perkins, B. W., statement of, 
391 ; appointed to Senate, 
449; 450; 451. 

Perkins. Stephen, house of 
burned by Bill Anderson, 
153. 

Perlev, Mrs. I. E., tells of 
Plumb's charity, 399, 400. 

Peters, M. S., 451. 

Peters, S. R., 450, 451. 

Pettigrew, R. F., voted against 
the McKinley Bill. 325; 
statement of; McKinley Bill 
discussed by, 375; saw 
Plumb in failing health, 
427; on Committee of Con- 
ference, 439. 

Phillips, W. A., 450. 



Phillips, Oliver, Phnnb ■topped 

Willi. B& 

Tickler, .1. A., 489. 

Pierce, Alfred <\. one <>r Plumb's 
company, 1 1 ; walked with 
Plumb, 46; senl t«. explore 
the valley <>r the Bine, 51 ; 
surveyed town of ftfarlpi 

6 I : went to Lawrence t,, 
Plnmb ; a atgb.1 with Bhing- 
wassa. Chief of the ! 
57 : statement of as t • • help- 
fulness of Plumb, l<»7. 

Pike, Captain J. a., in command 
at Anbry, 1 13; action of in 
Qnantrlll raid. 154 

Tin Indians, how name of orig 

taated, ii'7. 
Plantz, n. <;.. Plumb's Brsi law 

partner. 90. 

Platte Bridge, battle of. 200. 

Pleasanton, General Alfred, pur- 
snlng Trice, is:, : comes on 
Westport battlefield. 191. 

Plnmb family, origin of. :: 

Plumb, David, sketch of life ,,f, 
4, et seq.J son worked in 
shop ..f. ii ; virtues in borne 
of, 10; mortgaged home to 
found Xenia Veto*, 15; at 

Lawrence in 1856, 48 : move 
to Kansas with family : In- 
cidents of trip to Ehnporia, 
• :i : arrival Of with family at 
Lmporia, 62 : aided in haul- 
tag press from <>M Wyan- 
dotte to Ehnporia 65. 

Plumb, Ellen, wounded acci- 
dentally, 7. 

Plumb, George, statement of. ■: : 
in puranil of Quantrlll, 159 : 
in partnership with brother 
Preston. 209. 

Plumb. Mrs. George, statement 
of. ion. km;. 

Plumb, ii. r... author of The 
Plumb <;< n< al ■ •■.. :: 

Plumb, Ichabod, Borne a. count of : 

moved to Ohio; father of 

David Plumb, t 
Plumb, Josephus, a good printer, 

ii: ill at bouse of prey P. 

McGee, 61. 
Plnmb, Preston T... birth of; cot 

sister's foot, 7; bitten by 



468 



INDEX 



Plumb, Preston B. — continued. 
bear ; bow be got tbe name 
of "Bony," 8 ; bad no middle 
name ; bow be got tbe initial 
in name ; influence of motber 
on ; worked in fatber's sbop, 
9; went to Kenyon College; 
worked on college paper, 
12 ; worked on Tribune in 
Marysville, Obio, 13 ; 

founded Xenia News, 14, 15 ; 
as editor of bis paper, 20; 
good printer ; bow be worked, 
21 ; studied law ; began to 
feel his power, 22 ; beard 
Parrott speak, 23; starts to 
Kansas ; saw Buford's men 
on boat ; letter of, 25 ; saw 
fortifications on Missouri 
River, 27; tbe Illinois com- 
pany, 28 ; arrived at Leaven- 
worth, July 4, 1856 ; first im- 
pressions of Kansas, 30 ; vis- 
its Lawrence and Lecompton, 
31 ; political conditions in 
Kansas, 32; letter of, 33; 
Border-Ruffians assault, 34 ; 
urges people to go to Kan- 
sas, 41 ; starts to Kansas 
again, 42 ; full account of 
second trip to Kansas, see 
chapter on, 43, et scq.; at 
Iowa City; company of; 
cargo of, 44; speech of; 
route of, 45; suppressed 
mutiny, 47 ; receipt of Red- 
path to ; Tappan's statement, 
48 ; founded Mariposa, 51 ; 
letters of about pioneer life, 
52, 53, 54; returned to Ohio 
to sell paper ; sold paper and 
returned to Kansas ; fore- 
man in Herald of Freedom 
office, 55 ; article of on Mari- 
posa, 56; describes the Le- 
compton Legislature ; the 
head of Mariposa though ab- 
sent, 57 ; abandons Mariposa 
for Emporia ; strengthened 
by the Mariposa enterprise, 
58 ; demise of tbe Lecompton 
Legislature ; letter of, 59 ; 
gel ting material for Emporia 
paper ; meets father and 
family at St. Louis, 61 ; as- 



Plumb, Preston B. — continued. 
sembling equipment for news- 
paper, 64 ; Kanzas News es- 
tablished; how first number 
was got out, 65; leader of 
Emporia, 66 ; attacked by 
smallpox, 67 ; office of on 
fire, 69 ; aided, church serv- 
ices at Emporia, 71 ; con- 
tributed to church building ; 
strengthened by pioneer life, 
72 ; appointed by Lane to 
superintend enrollment of 
people to protect ballot 
boxes, 74 ; at Grashopper 
Falls convention, 75 ; opposed 
Lecompton constitution, 76 ; 
delegate to Leavenworth 
Constitutional Convention, 
81 ; sent to Southeastern 
Kansas as aide-de-camp to 
General Lane, 84. 

The Bar and the Legisla- 
ture ; chapter on, 86, et seq.; 
energy of ; precarious healtb 
of, 87 ; efforts to secure rail- 
roads ; helped organize Re- 
publican party, 89 ; secretary 
of convention ; studied law ; 
admitted to bar ; first army 
service, 90 ; managed im- 
peachment cases, 91 ; Su- 
preme Court Reporter, chap- 
ter on, 95, et scq.; appoint- 
ment of to raise troops, 103, 
104; mustered as Major of 
the 11th Kansas, 107 ; ac- 
tions of in field, 110, 111 ; 
in battle of Cane Hill, 112, 
113; battle of Reed's Moun- 
tain, 117 ; sent back with re- 
inforcements, 118 ; part of in 
battle of Prairie Grove ; 
saved Ewing, 124; published 
Buck & Ball at Cane Hill, 
126, et seq.; marched down 
Cove Creek, 131 ; at Van 
Buren, 132; bridged White 
River, 133 ; promoted to - 
Lieutenant-Colonel ; member 
of Court-Martial, 134; 
changed guard of imprisoned 
women, 147 ; criticized for 
Quantrill raid, 158 ; acted 
promptly ; pursued with 



INDEX 



109 



Plumb, Preston B. — continued. 
vigor, 159; urged Ewing to 
form ou State-liue ; crossed 
Wakarusa, 1G0; Lane wanted 
bis command, 1G1 ; actions 
of in pursuit, 1G2 ; at Prairie 
City ; Fletcber Farm ; con- 
tinues pursuit, 1G2, 1G3 ; 
saved by Simpson, 1G5 ; said 
to have written Order No. 
11, 1GG; Provost Marshal, 
1G8 ; Crenshaw affair, 1G9, et 
seq.; stationed at Independ- 
ence ; at Humboldt, 17G ; 
stopped cattle-stealing, 177 ; 
conveyed trains, 178 ; mus- 
tered as Lieutenant-Colonel ; 
in command at Olathe, 179 ; 
letter of to Blunt, 183 ; nar- 
row escape of, 184; daring 
of at bridge, 185; af Little 
Blue, 187 ; charge of, 188 ; in 
the advance with his men, 
191 ; in pursuit of Price, 192 ; 
assigned to command Dis- 
trict of Southern Kansas ; 
ordered to report for duty 
on Great Plains, 193 ; march 
of to Fort Kearny and up 
the Platte, 195 ; headquarters 
of at Camp Dodge, 19G ; In- 
dian fighting, 197 ; ordered 
to Fort Halleck ; opens Over- 
land trails and maintains 
service ; commissioned Col- 
onel, 199 ; offered charge 
of overland lines ; mustered 
out ; complimentary tele- 
gram of General Connor to, 
200; as a soldier, chapter 
on, 202, et seq.; march of up 
the Platte; crossing the 
Platte at Julesburg, 205; 
aided Captain Palmer, 20G; 
character of as a soldier, 
207 ; back to civil life ; plans 
of, 209; to the Legislature; 
Speaker of the House, 210; 
marriage of ; re-election of, 
212; banker, 216, et seq.; in 
cattle business, 221 ; mining 
business, 222 ; chapter on 
election of to the Senate, 
224, et seq.; supported Gree- 
ley, 224; first race for the 



Plumb, Preston B. — oontkmed. 
Senate, 226 ; al Wichita con- 
vention, 227 ; elected t'> the 
U. B. Senate; tome-coming 

of, 280 ; swum ; on « lommlt- 

tee on Public Lands, 233; 
fight of against Bammond, 
235; Committee assignments 
of In 46th Congress, . 
Senate scats of, 239 : attitude 

of toward Indians. 241 j op- 
posed claims of Ben Bolla- 
day, ~ 12 ; Introduced amend 
meut to Constitution to pro- 
hibit manufacture and sale 

of liquors, 2 13. 

Opposed EUver and Harbor 
Bill, 244; delegate to Na- 
tional Republican Conven- 
tion, 245; inlluence of s<>uglit 
for Grant; for Blaine; talks 
with Garfield, 246; cave 
Blaine votes of Kansas to 
Garfield, 247; opposed Civil 
Service as proposed, L* is; 
opposed Sherman's funding 
bill, 249; attacked policy of 
reserves; statistics used by, 
250; voted to redeem bonds, 
251; opposed Sherman's 
funding bill ; speech of, 252; 
speech of on Treasury sur- 
plus, 253; sp h of on pub- 
lic debt, 254 : ideas of on 
Civil Service, 257 <t §t •/ ," 
what he proposed, 1MO; re- 
view of work of first term in 
Senate, 262; re-election to 
Senate, 263; speech of favor- 
ing payment of national 
debt, 266; favored Commit- 
tee on Agriculture. 267; op- 
posed aping foreign fads. 

2( >S; speech of on death of 
Dudley C. Haskell ; pat 
appropriation bill for Post 
Office Department, 269 : |ave 

notice that Indian Territory 
would soon he required for 
settlement, 270; favored pen- 
sion for widow of General 
Thomas, L'71 : reasons for op- 
posing River and Harbor 

Bill, l'T::: not for Blaine's 
nomination ; favored Arthur, 



470 



INDEX 



Plumb, Preston B. — continued. 
275 ; made speech nominat- 
ing Logan, 276 ; aided in 
Blaine campaign, 277 ; first 
opposition of diplomatic serv- 
ice, 279 ; opposed appropria- 
tion for monument to Gen- 
eral Grant, 280 ; opposed bill 
for relief of Fitz-John Por- 
ter, 282 ; favored opening 
Oklahoma, 284 ; amendment 
of to prohibit use of railroad 
passes, 287; policy of on the 
diplomatic service, 289, ct 
seq.; what he proposed in 
lieu of, 291 ; favored service 
pension bill, 294 ; tribute of 
to Union soldiers, 295, et { 
scq.; retort of upon Senator 
Vest, 297; value of personal 
property in Alabama shown 
— guns, pistols and dirks, 
298 ; meat trust shown up, 
299 ; on select Committee on 
meat products, 300 ; action of 
in relation to Congressional 
Library building, 301, et 
seq.; review of work of in 
Fiftieth Congress, 305 ; great- 
est factor in establishment 
of Department of Agricul- 
ture, 307, et scq.; aided in 
nomination of Harrison for 
President, 310; urged for 
place in Cabinet ; would not 
consider it, 311 ; third elec- 
tion to Senate, chapter on, 
312 ; President of Deep Har- 
bor Convention, 317 ; Alaska 
Commercial Company, 319 ; 
No Man's Land, 320; op- 
posed Force Bill, 322 ; on 
Committee on Reclamation 
of Arid Lands ; submitted re- 
port, 324 ; opposed the Mc- 
Kinley Bill to end, 325. 

Review of work of in Fif- 
ty-first Congress, 326; op- 
posed Springer amendments 
to Oklahoma Bill, 330; fa- 
vored admission of Okla- 
homa and aided in getting 
good bill, 332; in the play 
"The Senator," 334, ct seq.; 
fight of for Silver, 340, et 



Plumb, Preston B. — continued, 
seq.; accusation of Sherman, 
341 ; substitute of favoring 
silver, 346 ; not a free-silver 
man in sense that Bryan 
was, 347 ; why he was for 
free-silver, 348 ; public lands, 
chapter on, 352 ; et seq. ; 
championed rights of people 
in New Mexico, 353 ; great 
speech of on land policies of 
different parties, 354, et seq.; 
land laws revised by ; con- 
servation of natural re- 
sources of America first put 
in laws by, 361, et seq.; a 
protectionist, 363 ; Commis- 
sion of to administer the 
tariff, 368, ct seq.; fame and 
statemanship of plan, 371 ; 
what Senator Dolliver said 
of, 372, 373; what scope of 
Commission was finally to 
be, 375 ; one of last acts of, 
introduction of Customs 
Commission Bill, 376 ; efforts 
of to secure sugar from 
sorghum, 377, ct seq.; inter- 
est in and connection with 
newspapers, chapter on, 3S1, 
et seq.; subscribed for every 
Kansas newspaper and read 
all of them, 382 ; remarkable 
power of, 383 ; habits and 
characteristics of, chapter 
on, 386, et scq. ; trips of with 
Ware ; umbrella incident, 
387 ; capacity of for work, 
chapter on, 393, et seq.; 
could carry two distinct 
lines of thought, 394 ; charity 
of, chapter on, 399, et scq.; 
a helpful man, chapter on, 
402, et scq.; stories of, chap- 
ter on, 411, et seq.; Kansas 
language invented by, 412 ; 
incident in first election of, 
413 ; influence of in the Sen- 
ate, chapter on, 417, et scq.; 
elected Manderson President 
of the Senate, 418 ; last cam- 
paign of, chapter on, 420, ct 
seq.; result of, 425; effect of 
on health of Plumb, 420 ; last 
illness and death of, chapter 



ixdi:x 



171 



on, 427, ct seq.; last rit.s, 
chapter on, 432. ct seq. ; serv- 
ices in Senate Chamber, 433; 
at Topeka, Kansas, •!.">! ; 
services at Emporia, 435 ; 
Rest, 436; 449. 

rinuie, John, progenitor of the 
Plumbs of America, 4. 

Plume, Robertus, progenitor of 
Phunb family, 3. 

Poineroy, S. C, secured charter 
for Plumb's bank, 216 ; Sena- 
torial succession of; elected 
to Senate, 449. 

Porter, Fitz-John, Plumb opposed 
bill for relief of, 282; re- 
stored to army, 283. 

Potter, F. W.. PL'. 

Prairie Grove, chapter on battle 
of, 115, ct seq. 

Pribilof Islands, saved from sale 
by Plumb's revision of land 
laws, 3G2. 

Price Raid, The, chapter on, ISO, 
et seq. 

Price, General Sterling, head- 
quarters of, 116; put chain 
across road at Cross Hollow, 
133 ; raid of ; battles of about 
Kansas City ; retreat of, 180, 
ct seq. 

Proctor, A. G., statement of, 388. 

Protection, Plumb in favor of, 
363 ; opposed extreme ; could 
not protect wheat, 305 ; po- 
sition of Plumb on, position 
of West now, 307: what 
Senator Dolliver said of, 
372, 373. 

Provost Marshal, chapter on, 168, 
et seq. 

Public Lands, chapter on, 352, et 
seq. 



Quantrill, William C, renegade 
Ohioan ; guerilla chieftain, 
138; taunts Ewing, 142; ar- 
rested Bill Anderson. 145 ; 
prevailed on his men through 
collapse of military prison 
for women, to go on Law- 
rence raid, 151 ; personal 
grievance against Lawrence, 
152; force of on Lawrence 



raid ; course taken, L64 ; ac- 

1 ions of at Law r. n, .-. 

pursuit <>r. chapter on, I 
manner of retreat of, 162; 
avoided ambush at Bull 
Creek. 164. 
Quay, Senator If. s.. went with 
Plumb to see physician, 



Railroad Land Grants, Plumb 

had many forfeited, 3.". J, 0l 

aeq. 
Railroad Passes, chapter on, 287, 

ft ft '/. 

Randall, Samuel .7., opposed the 

Morrison Bill, 2 
Randolph, Mr<. Anna Watson, 

addresses and writings <■!', 

99. 
Reade, Charles B., 432. 

"lied Legs," nature of organiza- 
tion of, 1.",::. 

Redpath, James, party <>f. 17. 

Reed, Thomas P., Speaker of 
House, 310. 

Reeder, W. A., 451, 452. 

Rees. R. R.. 462. 

Reid, Whitelaw, buy with Hi: 
19; wrote for Xenia Veto*, 
20. 

Republican party, founding of; 
antecedents of, 17. 

Reynolds. Gov. Thomas I '.. 180. 

Rhea's Mills, Blunt camped at. 
130. 

Richardson, Albert P.. in Red- 
path's party. 17. 

Ridgley, E. E., 461 

RlggS, Samuel A.. 224 

Roberts, John T.. statment of 
bow Plumb a Ided him. 410. 

Robinson, Charles, visited by 
Plumb, 33: Impeached as 
Governor, !»1 : one of t' 
Inviting I'lumb to Lawrence, 

Robinson, John W.. impeached. !>1. 

Rockvilie, Border station, 148. 

Rockwell, P... 879. 

Ross, i". <;.. < Japtaln Company r. 

nth Kansas, i"7: borse of 

killed at i.ittie Blue, 187; 

supported Greeley, 224 ! • 

tion of to Senate i i' 1 



472 



INDEX 



Ross, W. W., visited by Plumb, 

51; delegate, 81. 
Ruggles, Robert M., law partner 

of Plumb, 213. 
Russell, Captain A. P., 11G; 

killed. 118. 
Ryan, Judge Thomas, elected to 

Congress, 227 ; on Plumb's 

vote against Hammond, 236, 

450. 



Saviers, , house of attacked 

by Bill Anderson, 153. 

Schofleld, General John M., suc- 
ceeds General Blunt, 133 ; 
ordered 11th Kansas to Fort 
Scott, 134. 

Scott, Charles F., 452. 

Sears, T. C, stood for Senator 
against Plumb. 22S ; amus- 
ing incident in connection 
with. 413. 

Selvey, Mrs. Arminna, one of im- 
prisoned women, 14G ; killed, 
149. 

"Senator, The," the play of 
William H. Crane, 334, et 
seq. 

Shamleffer, W. F., statement of, 
217 ; on good-fellowship of 
Plumb, 389. 

Shannon, Governor Wilson, re- 
signed, 41. 

Shawnee Mission, 143. 

Sheridan, B. J., statement of, 
382. 

Sherman, John, sworn as Senator 
with Plumb, 233; bill of to 
care for public debt, 249 ; 
led movement to demonetize 
silver, 251 ; opposed by 
Plumb ; defeated by Plumb, 
252 ; opposed payment of na- 
tional debt, 26G; elected 
President of the Senate, 278 ; 
demonetized silver, 340 ; 
statement of, 348; called to 
task by McPherson, 3G4. 

Sherman, Patrick, 178. 

Sliirigwassa, Chief of Raws and 
Pottawatomies ; gives Pierce 
and McClung a bad supper; 
wanted McClung for son-in- 
law, 57. 



Shore, Captain S. T., 84. 

Siegel, General Franz, halted by 
chain, 133. 

Silver, chapter on Plumb's course 
on, 340, et scq.; demonetized, 
340; Plumb's substitute in 
favor of, 34G. 

Simons, Walter L., 228. 

Simpson, Captain B. F., prepared 
to ambush Quantrill at Bull 
Creek, 1G4 ; saved Plumb at 
ambush, 1G5 ; statment of ; in 
the rear with Plumb, 184 ; 
daring of at bridge, 185 ; in 
battle of Little Blue, 187; 
got rations for Eleventh Kan- 
sas, 191 ; delegate to National 
Republican Convention, 245 ; 
in Garfield's room, 24G ; 
plain speaking of, 247 ; ad- 
monition of Plumb in Blaine 
convention at Chicago, 27G; 
tribute of to Plumb, 410. 

Simpson, Jerry, 422, 451. 

Singer, Lt. John M., Captain of 
Provost Guard, 148 ; in pur- 
suit of Quantrill. 1G2. 

Sluss. Judge Henry C, statement 
of, 215 ; further statement of, 
354. 

Smith, , one of Plumb's com- 
pany, 44. 

Smith, Major J. Nelson, funeral 
of, 189. 

Smith, General Kirby, instruc- 
tions of to Price, 180. 

Smith, Nicholas Verres, some ac- 
count of, 28, 29. 

Smith, G. W., 212. 

Snoddy. Colonel John T., 182. 

Southeastern Kansas, troubles 
in ; chapter on, 83. 

Southwick family, some account 
of, 212. 

Southwick, Abijah, family of, 
211; house of a station on 
the Underground Railroad ; 
daughter of married Preston 
B. Plumb, 212. 

Southwick, Miss Caroline A., 
married to Preston B. Plumb, 
212. 

Spatildlng, Azel, 92. 

Spicer, Noyes, carried from Lead- 
ville by Plumb, 404. 






I x i > r: x 



■17:: 



Stanton, F. F., removed as Sec- 
retary, 7t>; Acting-Governor; 

convened Legislature, 78. 
Stevens, Walter I?., statement of 
as to Plumb, 383; how Plumb 

worked, 3:)7 ; Plumb's char- 
ity, 400; extract from article 

of, 404. 

Stewart, Rev. J. E., sent to 
Southeastern Kansas. St. 

Stewart, Captain J. S., with 
Plumb at Grassbopi>er Falls, 
75 ; statement of, 177. 

St. John, John P., defeated for 
Governor, 201 ; wished Re- 
publican party to favor tem- 
perance, 274; petition of 
temperance people spat upon : 
accepted nomination of Pro- 
hibition party for President 
and defeated Blaine, 270, 277. 

Stone, , murdered by George 

Todd, 155. 

Stories of Plumb, chapter on, 
411, et seq. 

Storrs, N. S., arrival of at Em- 
poria with family, 67. 

Storrs. Rev. S. D., one of the 
"Andover Band." 70. 

Stotler, Jacob, worked for Plumb 
on Xenia yews; recollections 
of, 19: Plumb's friendship 
for, 21; statement of, 2J ; 
induced by riuinb to move 
to Emporia. 60 : tells how 
first number of Kanzas News 
was put out. 65 ; tribute of 
to Plumb, 00; short of 
clothes at Emporia, 68 ; state- 
ment of, 87 ; advice of Plumb 
to, 209 : proposed name of 
Plumb for Legislature. 210; 
pledged to work for Plumb 
for Senator, 22.",. 

Stoughton, "William L., 310. 

Stratton, Captain, S4. 

Sugar, chapter on, 377, ct srq. 

Swaim, Major , in Garfield's 

room at Chicago, 240. 

Taggart, Joseph. 453. 

Tappan, Samuel F.. one of 
Plumb's company. 44: state- 
ment of, 48; inconsistencies 
of statement of, 49; Secre- 



tary Leavenworth Conatltn 
t lonal < 'oiivontlon, s«i. 
Tariff, the, chapter on, 1 

m i/. .• Plumb in {■.'. op 

posed t" extremes "f ; could 
imt "protect" wheat, .' 
p"-iiic>n of Plumb "ii, | 

t ion Of Wett now. .'I'm ; « !om 

missions to administer pro 
posed ; amendment to hi 
Bill providing for, Introduced 
by Plumb, 3G8 ; what Senator 
Dolliver said of. B72, .'•.:::. 

Tavior, Zachary, 10. 

Templeton, IPay, daughter of 
of Imprisoned women, l it - ,. 

Thacher, T. Dwight, r>i>< «n •-, i 
Lane's Bpeecb, SO; <:■ 
SI. 

Thomas, A. A.. 233. 

Thomas. General <; "ge ir. hill 

for pension of widow of, 
27 ! . 

Thomas. Mis- I.anra, statement 
of. 409. 

Thompson, Lewis, 104. 

Thompson. W. II.. elected to Ben- 
ate, 4!'.'. 

Thurman, Allen <;.. 288. 

Titus, Colonel II. T., raptured In 
bis fort. 40. 

Todd, Georuv. Guerilla; de 
throned Quantrlll, 188 ; mur- 
dered Stone. 1 .".">. 

Topeka Constitution, adoption of, 
30. 

Trading Po-d. Border Station. 
143. 

Turple, David, 13. 

Turner, A. II.. statement of. S8. 

Turner. E. .7.. 450, 451 

Turner, Thomas. .".. 



I'nion soldiers, tribute of Plumb 

to. •_">:,. . t srq. 
Underground Railroad, pas 
through Ohio. is. 



Van Buren, Blunfs attack on. 
130, ei 

Vandiver, Mrs. Si of im- 

prisoned women. 146; killed, 
149. 



474 



INDEX 



Van Horn, Colonel R. T., suc- 
ceeded Plumb as Provost 
Marshal ; praises Tlumb, 1G8, 
et seq. 

Van Ness, Alice, one of impris- 
oned women, 146. 

Vaughan, Jim. executed ; sisters 
of arrested, 145. 

Veale, Colonel George W., at bat- 
tle of Westport, 190. 

Vest, George G., opposed the ad- 
mission of South Dakota, 
279 ; speech of against serv- 
ice pensions, 297 ; on select 
Committee to investigate 
meat products, 300. 

Vincent, W. D., 451. 

Vorhees, D. W., put on defensive 
by Plumb, 303. 

Voting Policy, what it was, 76. 

Waggener, Balie P., how he found 
Plumb at work, 396. 

Wagstaff, W. R., 92. 

Wakarusa War, mentioned, 36. 

Walden, J. M., delegate to Leav- 
enworth Constitutional Con- 
vention, 81. 

Walker, G. M. f statement of, 
110; had charge of impris- 
oned women, 146; quarter- 
master at Humboldt, 177; 
same at Olathe, 179. 

Walker, Isaiah, "float" of used 
to perfect title to Emporia 
townsite, 63. 

Walker, Morgan, Quantrill be- 
trayed companions to death 
at house of, 152. 

Walker, P. B., went to Kansas 
with Plumb, 42; one of 
Plumb's company, 44. 

Walker, Samuel, 194. 

Walker, Robert J., appointed 
Governor of Kansas Terri- 
tory ; promised all a fair ad- 
ministration, 74 ; removed 
from office, 76. 

Walker, William, Chief of Wyan- 
dots, 13. 

Walthal, Senator C. E., on Com- 
mittee of Conference, 439. 

Ware, E. F., work of mentioned, 
193; confused Kansas regi- 



ments, 194 ; tribute to Plumb, 
214; supported Greeley, 224; 
consulted by Plumb on Tariff 
Commission and its powers, 
375 ; trips of with Plumb ; 
letter of about umbrella, 387. 

Waring, Charles, statement of, 
189. 

Warner, John, 203. 

Washington, George, pioneer life 
gave strength to, 72. 

Watson, Miss Mary Jane, state- 
ment of, 100. 

Weed, T. J., 104. 

Weer, Colonel William, failed to 
bridge White River, 133. 

Wellhouse, Walter, charge of 
Plumb described by, 188 ; 
timed Plumb's ride, 197. 

Wellman, Walter, interview of 
with Plumb, 381. 

Wells, Welcome, 226. 

West, Judge J. S., arranged for 
meeting for Plumb in last 
campaign, 422. 

Westport, 143; battle of, 1S9, et 
scq. 

White, Hugh, pioneer settler in 
Western New York, 5. 

Whitfield, J. W., destroyed Osa- 
watomie, 37. 

Whitman, Captain, 84. 

Wickersham, Colonel Dudley, 
with cavalry joined Blunt, 
119. 

Wilder, A. C, 450. 

Willard, Miss Frances, presented 
petition to National Republi- 
can Convention, 276. 

Williams, Archibald L., state- 
ment of, 214. 

Wilson, Amos E., how Plumb re- 
membered, 412. 

Wilson, Davies, 92. 

Wilson, Robert, threatened to dis- 
arm Plumb, 53. 

Wilson Creek, Emporia troops in 
battle of, 99. 

Winchell, James M., rode to 
Plumb's camp, 44; delegate 
to Leavenworth Convention, 
81. 

Windoni, William, sworn as Sen- 
ator with Plumb, 233; 343. 

Wood, S. N., 224. 






INDEX 






Woodson, Daniel, active Pro-Slav- 
ery man in Kansas; acting 
Governor, 41. 

Wright, , found at Burlln- 

game by Plumb with small- 
pox; cared for by Plumb, 67. 

Wright, Dr. J. J., welcome ad- 
dress of to Plumb, 230. 

Xcnia yews, founded, 15; char- 
acter of, 20. 



v.i.vr, Dick, guerilla ; 

Kansas, I 
Zeakley, Bliss Fannie, be 

make Bag, '<■>■ 
Yellowstone National Park, so- 

larged under Plumb'i • 

sion of land law -. :;• 
Young. I. I>., 462. 
Younger, < Jole, Imprisoned woi 

relatives of, 1 16. 



DEC 10 i3»3 



&77-1 



